Category: facebook

Engineering Zen: Mind-Bending Science and History Revealed | July 13 2026, 16:16

Reminding you that I have an Engineering Zen group on Facebook and Telegram. Recently, there have been posts about:

– The British plan to build an aircraft carrier… out of ice. Measuring 600 meters in length — the largest ship in history. Material scientists found an additive that makes ice as strong as concrete. A prototype was actually built — its remnants still lie at the bottom of a Canadian lake.

– The fact that no one really knows why a bicycle doesn’t fall over. For a century and a half, textbooks offered two beautiful explanations — until in 2011 they built a bicycle that disabled both effects. By all laws, it should fall over. Yet, it rides.

– How the military communicates with submarines through the depth of salty water, where radio waves cannot penetrate. The Americans nearly turned 40% of the state of Wisconsin into an antenna, while the Soviet system used the Earth’s crust itself as an antenna. Efficiency — megawatts in, a couple of watts out. And that’s enough for almost the entire globe.

– That very rotor with blades behind glass, which has been explained incorrectly for 150 years. Maxwell was initially pleased — but then they noticed it spins the wrong direction. The correct answer is much trickier, and it specifically requires a “non-ideal” vacuum.

– Why a fridge magnet sticks only on one side, and barely on the other. It turns out, it’s the same trick used to focus beams in particle accelerators. And it has a very non-obvious “flip side.”

– The “Silicon Lottery”: chips from the same production line turn out different, and your processor might just be a flawed model of a higher-end version with blocks disabled. And in the 90s, there was a coprocessor that, upon installation, simply switched off the main processor and worked instead.

– Undersea cables that carry the entire internet: as thick as a garden hose, under 20 kilovolts, amplifying light directly with light — no electricity involved. And why traders are willing to pay for the fact that light in fiber is “too slow.”

– The Hoover Dam, inside which nearly 1000 km of piping is hidden — otherwise, the concrete would have taken 125 years to set and it would have cracked from tension. It was cooled with an on-site ice plant.

– And for dessert — the fact that trolleybuses, electric cars, faxes, drones, video calls, and even humanoid robots are much older than you think. One of the robots walked, talked 700 words, counted with his fingers, and smoked. In 1939. Seems we’re just dusting off the past.

Join us to not miss much more interesting stuff.

“Engineering Zen”, Engineering Zen and on Telegram t.me/engineersdzen

Parking Woes at Cocoa Beach: A Costly Oversight | July 12 2026, 13:09

Florida, Cocoa Beach. Parked the car not far from a roadside restaurant. The sign says paid parking, here’s the parking number, here’s a QR code to download the app. Took photos of the QR code, my car’s number, and the parking spot number and thought as I walked the hundred meters to the restaurant, I’d install the app and pay then. Installed it, entered the parking number, and now it’s asking for the parking spot number! Darn, have to go back. And there I was, already greeted by a parking ticket… Talk about efficiency

Protected Sea Turtle Nesting Grounds in Florida | July 12 2026, 03:47

How sweet. On a Florida beach, a square meter is surrounded with ribbons and there’s a sign that reads:

DO NOT DISTURB! SEA TURTLE NEST HERE. VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO FINES AND IMPRISONMENT!

Florida Statute

Chapter 379.2431(1)

No person may take, possess, disturb, mutilate, destroy, cause to be destroyed, sell, offer for sale, transfer, harm, or harass any sea turtle, its nest, or eggs at any time.

Upon conviction, an individual may be incarcerated for up to 60 days or fined up to $500, or subject to both penalties simultaneously, plus an additional fine of $100 for each sea turtle egg destroyed or taken.

The US Endangered Species Act of 1973

No person may take, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect any sea turtle, its nest, and/or eggs, or attempt such conduct.

Any person who knowingly violates any provision of this Act may be subjected to a civil penalty of up to $25,000 or a criminal penalty of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to one year.

If you witness a violation, see an injured or stranded turtle or disoriented hatchlings, please contact the FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) at 888-404-FWCC (3922), *FWC or #FWC.

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Next to this site, some Mexicans were sitting and talking loudly. I jokingly asked if they were disturbing the eggs. It seems they didn’t understand English, but they moved away just in case.

Navigating Online Chaos: Reflections from a Russian-Language Group | July 10 2026, 00:08

I’m writing to a Russian-speaking group every day (essentially posting the same content as in my Engineering Zen group, but slightly less often and sometimes more concisely). The audience there is 100× larger, and to put it mildly, more diverse. The comments are very typical for Russian-speaking groups and resemble this story from the net:

“…An ad appeared in one chat: ‘Selling shoes, red, size 41. Worn once. 2500 R’…”

Barely 10 seconds passed and it began:

— Worn!!!!!

— red flippers, cow.

— And how much do they cost, why is it so hard to write the price right away?!

— It should be written as worn correctly.

— I am a mother who has birthed twenty children, twenty times, I have nothing to wear to school meetings. I’m already at your house, crawling through the gutter, open the vent! Give me the shoes!!

— Burn in hell! Shoes are worn!

— Worn! Respect the language.

— WORN!!!!!!

— how much do they cost?

— One should walk barefoot. Preferably through dew, all women’s diseases come from heels. And then they complain about not getting married. Fool.

— Is the size even right?

— Treating fungus later is more expensive, just wear your own beaten-up shoes.

— Ugly shoes. And you are ugly too.

— Prostitutes wear such. When can I pick them up?

— And where do you know from what prostitutes wear?

— Make way! I’ve been a fetishist for 10 years. I’ll give 300 rubles for a picture of your feet.

— Worn!!!!!!!!¡!! ¡!!!!!! ¡!!!!! ¡!!!!!!!!!! ¡! F… s, correct the mistake, I’m having a fit already!!!

— Man, why have fetishists become so poor?

— And what’s a fetishist actually, girls?

— It’s very convenient, by the way, girls. I had such a lover, when I was tired after work, I just put a hair tie on…

— WORN!!!!!!!

— Would someone just shoot her already!!

— Where did you put the hair tie?

— You surely know where.

— Well, I don’t know, your hair tie wouldn’t fit my late husband with your thin hair.

— Did your gynecologist never shout ‘Aaaauuuuu!’ down there?

— Ha ha ha. And an owl from there replied: ‘Uh-huh.’

— And bats flew all over the office.

— You’re probably glad that he finally died, aren’t you?

— Why are you being rude?!

— Let’s go to the next thread, they are selling patent leather boots, it’s boring here.

They leave, dragging along the fetishist.

Only a lonely, beautiful, and tragically grand grammar-Nazi kept standing and standing under the post, like a monument to something great and powerful…