Month: October 2022

I noticed that Yuki’s fur is bicolor in some places — for instance, the tip of the hair might be black, while the rest could be white, or vice versa. I started digging into the topic and found a lot of interesting information on how this works. Humans, for example, don’t have this 🙂

It turns out that dogs only have two pigments — gray-brown (eumelanin) and yellow-red (pheomelanin). All other colors are formed through combinations or distortions of these pigments, regulated by genes. Pigmentation is formed by melanocytes. They can turn pigmentation “conditionally” on or off. The “rules” are in the DNA and can be activated by age or external factors (like how rabbits turn white in winter). The depth of color is determined by the concentration of pigments.

The situation where hair has different colors along its length is called agouti. This coloring, when it covers most of the body, is considered the original, ancestral coloring in dogs and is often called “wolf-like” because in wolves this trait is dominant and widespread. By the way, the Shiba Inu is the breed closest to the common ancestor of modern dogs and wolves. Caucasian, Central Asian, German shepherds, malamutes, laikas, huskies, Shiba Inu, schnauzers, Norwegian Elkhound definitely have the agouti locus allele, about the others I do not know.

And a few photos of Yuki 🙂 He generally doesn’t like being photographed, but I love photographing him, and he gives in

His debugging skills are exceptional

A good album. They used to be alive. But in 2022, Shakhrin broke down. Really broke down.

Time will come to choose

Whom to meet the dawn with and for whom to sing

What are you ready for this world?

In which war are you ready to die?

Some shoot on principle,

Some keep hiding over and over,

This one believes he’s a born prince,

While that one fights for love.

There are those, from the couch, in front of the screen

Who curse those above them and the people:

Those above – are steering wrong,

The people – sing the wrong songs.

I want to believe, I’m with those,

Who fall and stand up again,

Who never pity themselves

And at least do not lie to themselves.

Who give orders to themselves,

As they are their own commander,

Who are fearless in their personal war,

Who will find the strength to build their own world.

Someday, a biopic drama has to be made about Liz Truss. Girls all around the world will weep out loud! From Minister for Women and Equalities to Prime Minister and back. What a year it’s been. Thankfully, the USA is still holding up, praise God. Three weeks until the elections.

And why is the DBLP logo in Cyrillic? https://dblp.org/ Checked in two browsers and on the phone (neither has RU locales set, only EN-US)

Friends, what are the current ways to send money to relatives in Russia from the USA?

It’s not needed right now, but when it becomes necessary (possibly very soon), it will be too late to ask.

A couple of photos from the “American kindergarten” series, taken by me over the last few days.

Reading about William Glackens, he’s an artist. He and his wife Edith Dimock (also an artist) had two children — Lenna and Ira. How surprised I was to learn that Ira is a son. And the name Lenna, it turns out, is a feminine version of Leonard.

Who is this advertisement aimed at?

Watching the movie “Elvis.” And here’s a thought that came to me this morning over breakfast. We haven’t finished watching Elvis yet, yes, it’s three hours long, but some expectations from the movie have already formed — to learn more about Elvis Presley. Is it worth watching the movie for this purpose? Here are some biopics that come to mind: “Blonde” about Marilyn Monroe, “Bohemian Rhapsody” about Freddie Mercury, “The Theory of Everything” about Stephen Hawking, “I, Tonya” about Tonya Harding, “Amadeus” about Mozart. Some of them stick closer to the real biography (like Hawking), while others are full of fabrications (for example, Blonde).

What happens is: they often create an alternative history, having an unknown intersection with real events and facts. It’s very hard to correct this initial impression by later reading a biography, as it already forms a mental image, and all subsequent information is viewed through the prism of what was already received earlier. For example, the movie “Blonde” starts with a scene where Marilyn’s insane mother tries to drown her little daughter in the bathtub. Or Marilyn’s polyamorous relationships with Chaplin and Robinson. This is what millions of viewers will remember after watching.

Then, a portion of the audience might become interested and start reading about what from the movie is true and what is embellished. But here enters the confirmation bias – the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. Precisely those shaped by these biopics. And then try to believe that Salieri actually didn’t kill Mozart, and that most of the stories about Marilyn Monroe’s affair with Robert Kennedy are made up since no one was there to actually witness, and there are no facts.

Interestingly, propaganda works in a similar way. It’s very important what introduces us to a subject because everything that follows is perceived in a certain context. That’s why propaganda aggressively targets schools and kindergartens.