Month: February 2022

(The English version is attached)

“Ugly Swans”, Strugatsky Brothers

— What’s unusual about them? — repeated Golem. — You could have noticed yourself, Viktor, that all people are divided into three large groups. More precisely, two large ones, and one small one. There are people who can’t live without the past, they are entirely in the past, more or less distant. They live by traditions, customs, covenants, they find joy and example in the past. Take, for example, Mr. President. What would he do if we didn’t have our great past? What would he refer to and where would he even come from? Then there are people who live in the present and do not wish to know the future or the past. You, for instance. All notions of the past are spoiled for you by Mr. President; wherever you look into the past, you see the same Mr. President everywhere. And as for the future, you have not the slightest idea about it, and, in my opinion, you are afraid to have one… Finally, there are people who live in the future. They have appeared in noticeable amounts recently. They rightly expect nothing good from the past, and the present for them is only material for building the future, raw material… Actually, they are already living in the future… on the islands of the future that have arisen around them in the present… — Golem, smiling in a strange way, looked up at the ceiling. — They are smart, — he said tenderly. — They are damn smart — unlike most people. They are all exceptionally talented, Viktor. They have strange desires and completely lack ordinary desires.

— Ordinary desires — those are, for example, women…

— In a certain sense — yes.

— Vodka, spectacles?

— Certainly.

— A terrible disease, — said Viktor. — I don’t want it… And still, it’s unclear… Don’t understand anything. Well, the fact that smart people are put behind barbed wire — that I understand. But why they are released, and why people aren’t allowed to them…

— Maybe it’s not them behind the barbed wire, but you who are.

Viktor smirked.

I was in Kyiv once for a single day. About the same time nine years ago. Back then, armored personnel carriers were used to pull trolleybuses out of the snow. An emergency was also declared at that time. I remember when there weren’t enough APCs, people would get off the trolleybus and push it uphill together.

I haven’t written this anywhere, but I am an Azerbaijani Ukrainian “by blood.” One of my grandmothers (my father’s mother, Maksimenko) was from Odessa, my other grandmother (my mother’s mother, Tyshchyshyna) was from Kherson, and my grandfather (my mother’s father, Fokin) was from Donetsk (Stalino). My father’s father was Azerbaijani. I have never been to Odessa, Kherson, or the Dnieper, and I really hope that I will once again visit Ukraine, and there will only be peace and love 🇺🇦

I wish luck and strength to the Ukrainians. That APCs would again be used to pull out trolleybuses, as it was nine years ago. That Ukraine may have many friends and no enemies at all. I hope that everything will soon be resolved, with God’s help. We remember — “The one with the truth is the strongest!”.

Just visiting

After many years of experience with iOS, I caution those considering switching from Android.

1) iOS itself unloads apps when it thinks they are not needed. That is, you watch YouTube, switch to the browser to Google something, come back to YouTube, and there you are greeted by the homepage instead of the video. Ideally, Google should have thought about this and restored the app in the same state, but this doesn’t happen. It’s a common issue with many apps. It’s easy to lose unfinished text.

2) iOS has an utterly idiotic text editing interface, especially when the text exceeds the input field width. For example, try copying a long URL fragment (say 700 characters) of about 40-50 characters in size.

3) The operating system interfaces have become complex and mysterious. For example, if notifications come loudly at night, turning the volume down to zero doesn’t help at all. Because notifications have their own volume settings!

4) Notifications! They lack a state that is shared between different devices. For instance, dismissed on one, should be dismissed on all. To disable notifications from application X, you may need to go into settings and turn them off there. At least there is now grouping.

There are countless advantages, too many to list. But the issues mentioned above—annoying.

By the way, they could have implemented automatic screen rotation based not only and not so much on the gyroscope indicators but also according to the face of the person looking at the phone. Really, it’s strange to turn the screen 90 degrees when you are reading something lying down, just because—oh, surprise—the phone is turned horizontally.

What a strange fox, thought the deer

An interesting lecture about Rembrandt. I’m not thrilled with Solodnikov’s interview style (still far from Pozner), but the guest, Roman Grigoryev, is simply magical, as are many on his channel.

I see it’s not just us having a president’s day…

How interesting indeed. I’m studying the Ghent Altarpiece. On the left (the yellow one) — prophet Zechariah Sickle-Seer as depicted by the Russian Orthodox Church, 18th century. On the right, in a fur hat and furs, the same figure as represented by the Roman Catholic Church in the artwork by Jan van Eyck, 1420-1432 (15th century) — precisely a fragment of the altar.

It seems it should be the other way around. Well, just like that

(By the way, it suddenly turned out that tomorrow is his “memorial day” according to the Orthodox calendar)

Here’s another from the same series of missed masterpieces – the same Mikoyan, the 1930s. Madonna Alba. A copy by Bruni from 1837 hangs in the Russian museum – I will post it in the comments. Together with “Venus with a Mirror” by Titian sold for $1,700,000.

And this is Jan van Eyck. The Annunciation. 1434. It hung in the Hermitage until 1929. Originally painted on a wooden panel, when it was in Russia, it was transferred to canvas (“for preservation”). Preservation was not achieved, as Comrade Mikoyan sold it in 1929 for $502,000.