Month: January 2023

It was still a shock for me to see the audience returning from intermission with plastic cups of beer. Between Beethoven and Sibelius. I wonder, was there also popcorn? Perhaps such things only happen in America? Or am I out of touch?

It turns out that the word “bedlam” originates from Bethlehem—specifically, the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem. I’m reading the concert program, and there’s a phrase inspirational bedlam. That’s how Beethoven’s biographer, Edmund Morris, described the composer’s drafts.

The term bedlam comes from the name of a hospital in London, “Saint Mary of Bethlehem,” which was devoted to treating the mentally ill in the 1400s. Over time, the pronunciation of “Bethlehem” morphed into bedlam and the term came to be applied to any situation where pandemonium prevails.

Interestingly, out of the 92 people in the Atlanta National Symphony Orchestra, only two are black. And the conductor. Surprised. However, at first glance, a similar ratio among the audience as well.

Hmm, didn’t know

yes, Google isn’t very useful in such an exercise

I wonder why you can’t report dishonest advertising on Telegram? Everyone else’s ads are just ads, but on Telegram it’s a complete dump. Practically one hundred percent of the ads are spam. Not a single useful one. Is it because it’s inexpensive and easy to get into? Or because mechanisms resistant to malicious use are difficult to implement? Mikhail Gelfand is now our lecturer from MIPT Andrey Anatolyevich.

It’s impossible to conceive of a more idiotic shower design. To turn on the shower, you must stand under it. The handle adjusts the temperature. It turns around one and a half times. You have to turn it and stop it at the desired position. In the process, cold water suddenly pours on your head with great force, which heats up in a second depending on the position of the handle, but you have already jumped back. And if you have overdone the turn by nearly one and a half turns and turned on the scalding water (that’s a full one and a half turns), then to turn it off, you need to stand under that boiling water. Because otherwise, you can’t reach the handle! The right part of the door doesn’t move, of course. And this is the Hilton, costing $200-250 per night.

I finished “The Clap of a Single Hand” by Kukushkin. One of the best books on the origin of life. “My book,” writes the author in the epilogue, “can be considered a fan prequel to ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari.” And I was just about to reread “Sapiens” in the original, having bought an English edition a couple of weeks ago specifically for this purpose! “The point of ‘The Clap’,” writes the author, “is that we, humans, are inseparable from the rest of the living nature and all of its history from the origin of life to the present day.” I must add that I’ve never had to google so much while reading a book before. So, on one hand, the book reads very easily—beautiful language, a humorous style. But on the other, Kukushkin constantly refers to wildly interesting examples and facts, forcing one to stop reading and search the internet for additional details before the topic fades. Overall, I highly recommend it to all the curious folks out there; it is definitely a favorite number one in my library.

I’ve ordered “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” by Jared Diamond next. Also in line is “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari (following), then “Accessory to War” by Neil DeGrasse. Oh, and “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins is waiting too.

Ozon: https://ozon.ru/t/eyNndjR

Amazon:

Can’t just post Yuki alone!

#cat

It turns out that the name Yuki can be spelled in Japanese (specifically, in kanji) in 14 different ways: 雪, 幸, 由紀, 由貴, 由岐, 由樹, 友紀, 夕希, 有希, 勇気, 有機, 祐樹, 雄輝, and 雄樹. All these are valid names pronounced as Yuki. You can also add the spellings in hiragana, ゆき (ゆうき) and katakana, ユキ (ユーキ). That’s why they use business cards 😉