Month: July 2023

July 19 2023, 17:15

Somehow I ended up on the topic of note durations in French. And it really made me smile. Look, there is a whole note, its half, a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth, etc. In American English and German, it couldn’t be simpler – whole (whole/ganze), half (half/halbe), quarter (quarter/viertel), eighth (eighth/achtelnote), etc. Italian, the language of music, has more complicated names – semibreve, minim, semiminim, crotchet, quaver…

But the French came up with the coolest idea of all. They simply looked at the notes and named them based on how they look. They have round (ronde), white (blanche), black (noire), hook (croche), double hook (double-croche)

July 18 2023, 08:03

https://youtu.be/Mde2q7GFCrw

A good conversation about philosophy and the meaning of things. However, in my view, Lex Fridman does not seem like a worthy interviewer for Harari. Mumbling, unclear, reading from a note, his eyes constantly looking downward, sometimes it’s hard to grasp the meaning of the question. Maybe I should listen to more of his interviews to understand why people like him..

July 16 2023, 15:40

The beginning and end of yesterday’s Joe Hisaishi concert at Wolf Trap. Joe Hisaishi is the composer of “Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and many other works of Studio Ghibli (and beyond). At the concert, he played with the keyboard and symphony orchestra. There was also a lot of Japanese vocal performance. Even by the Washington Chorus. I can only imagine how they learned it..

We once bought the cheapest tickets a long time ago, on the lawn. But we were poorly prepared (other things were on our minds): we didn’t arrive early to claim good spots on the grass. It’s very convenient that you can bring almost anything with you, except dogs and guns. I brought a bottle of wine and almost finished it myself. Now I know that there’s hardly any alcohol in it. Before, it was unclear why just one glass a day felt odd. But overall, Roscato Rosso Dolce is a very tasty fruit punch.

July 15 2023, 00:53

In essence, we’ve launched a fundraiser, seeking additional funding for Masha and Yegor, her ice dancing partner. It seems we won’t get far on our own, yet we have big plans. This year, Masha is representing Georgia, and together with Yegor, they will be performing in several countries already this year. The link to the fundraiser is in the comments. Likes and shares are very helpful. If anyone has experience in drawing more attention to a fundraiser, or knows how to attract donations, I would greatly appreciate any advice. Much more details in Nadia’s original post.

July 11 2023, 16:33

And what if technological progress is using humans for survival? Like, literally parasitizing?

And what if it was wheat and corn that domesticated humans to spread and multiply? Symbiosis indeed, but it seems they gain more in the long term.

And what if various Earth-dwelling creatures, including trees and microorganisms, simply live on a different time scale than us, and because of the scale difference, they just don’t notice us, and we don’t notice them?

July 09 2023, 21:41

Basically, Apple Watch is kind of ‘underwhelming’ when you need to track a long bike workout. The battery dies after five or six hours of workout mode. So, I breezed through my 100km today, to Washington and back, and there won’t be a pretty picture with the track. So here’s Georgetown – this view from the bridge is the “I made it!” checkpoint.