Category: Thoughts

When Pigs Outsmart Technology: The Failure of Precision Feeding in Large Farms | October 05 2025, 17:01

Today I learned how scientific achievements fly under a pig’s tail when faced with reality.

There’s this thing called precision feeding in pig farming. The gist is: a pig has an RFID chip attached to its tag (actually to its ear), and when it wants to eat, it sticks the tag into the feeder – and a special sensor reads its data and dispenses exactly as much feed from the machine as it should, also recording in a database how much and when it was given. If the pig sticks its tag in too early, the feed machine won’t dispense any. The idea is to reduce feed costs, improve growth and health of the animals, and lessen environmental pollution (less uneaten feed).

It seems like a great idea. However, such a system doesn’t work where there are large populations – it only works in specialized productions with few pigs, where almost all are known by name.

Why doesn’t it work on a large scale?

Because pigs are very cunning and quickly adapt. One pig inserts a tag, and then the one higher in the hierarchy chases it away and eats what isn’t meant for it.

Whole classes of oppressed arise, whose role is to insert the tag so that the authorities can gorge themselves. In the end, chaos ensues and no precision is achieved.

This is how pigs oppose technological progress.

Adjusting to Unexpected Checks: Virginia’s Surplus Distributions | October 03 2025, 00:22

I just can’t get used to the fact that when the state sends a $400 check just because they collected more from Virginians (everyone) than expected, it’s normal. They are the state of Virginia.

Seeing Shapes and Shadows: How Portrait Drawing Changes Our View of Faces | September 12 2025, 15:44

It’s interesting that even a little experience in drawing portraits makes one see patterns in other people’s faces that you wouldn’t think about otherwise. For example, you look at someone’s face, and some points on the face converge into an equilateral triangle. Or the shadow from the sun forms a notable pattern. Or some lines are strictly parallel or perpendicular. And at that moment, you feel like grabbing a pencil and trying to sketch it. At this point, it seems that achieving a likeness is a piece of cake.

Or you notice that a silvery dress is the darkest thing in the picture and probably needs to be depicted almost in black. With highlights, of course. This contradicts the notion that “a silvery dress is just a shiny white.”

Sometimes you look at someone’s face, reassured that the typical proportions are maintained, or, conversely, that they are not. There are also optical illusions. They are the most interesting. It’s when it seems that some point exactly divides a segment in half, but as soon as you measure, it turns out not to be the case.

It’s also interesting that our eyes deceive us about what lines are and what are not lines. Here, it would be more correct not to use the word line” but edge.”

Beijing Parade Marks 80 Years Since China’s WWII Victory | August 31 2025, 14:02

On September 3rd in Beijing, a military parade dedicated to the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in World War II will take place. Apparently, I did not pay enough attention during history lessons at school: it turns out that China’s losses during WWII were almost comparable to those of the USSR, considering the official figures (in both cases, they are significantly lower than the actual ones). However, there is a catch – the war between China and Japan began in 1937, and later merged with World War II when Japan attacked the USA and its allies in 1941, officially making China part of the anti-Hitler coalition. Germany in 1937 was just preparing: a year later, in 1938, the Anschluss of Austria began, and another year later (1939) – the invasion of Poland, and at the same time the USSR attacked Finland.

Meanwhile, in Germany, it is considered that the precision of German accounting was incomparably higher, and the cumulative losses of the aggressors, together with Japan, turned out to be four times less than the cumulative losses of the defenders.

The figure of China’s losses mainly consists of civilian population. Their military losses were 3-4 million, while 12-17 million suffered from bombings, punitive actions, diseases (remembering Japanese Unit 731 and biological warfare) and other war consequences.

—–

Below I quote my post from January 25th of this year – just relevant and timely:

Who won the Second World War? Interestingly, note that no one paid attention to Trump’s words about the Second World War in his recent tweet-ultimatum.

.

He writes “Russia helped us win the Second World War” — everyone noted the incorrect figure of 60 million losses, but somehow not this.

.

I found an interesting study from 2017. It was a survey (1,338 people) from 11 countries including 8 allied countries and 3 Axis countries.

.

It showed significant differences in how the former Soviet Union and 10 other countries remember the war.

.

Events marked by representatives of the Soviet Union were almost completely different from those mentioned in other countries. Besides, Russians stated a greater responsibility for the victory in the war (75% of military efforts), than representatives of any other nation (although the USA and Great Britain also estimated their contribution as more than 50%).

.

However, when people from each country assessed the contribution of other countries to the war, they attributed a greater role to the USA than to the former Soviet Union.

.

An interesting finding is that, when asked why the USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan, most people from ten countries responded that it was to win the war, except for Russians.

.

Moreover, the older the respondents were in 7 of these countries, the more often they agreed with the statement that the USA dropped the bombs to end the war.

.

Russia (USSR) in the survey results demonstrates a unique narrative centered on the Eastern Front, unlike Western countries.

.

Most countries (including former Axis countries) focus on events related to the USA and Great Britain, such as Pearl Harbor, the Normandy landing, the atomic bombings of Japan, and the Holocaust.

USSR holds a central place in the Russian narrative (75% contribution to victory). The USA and Great Britain also overestimate their evaluations, stating their contribution exceeds 50%, focusing on the Western Front and the Pacific Campaign. The total estimates of the contribution of the eight allied countries amount to 309%, showing the effect of “national narcissism”. Most countries prioritize the USA (27%), while the USSR — 20%.

.

Four events gained the status of “key” (mentioned by more than 50% of respondents): the attack on Pearl Harbor, the atomic bombings of Japan, the Normandy landing, and the Holocaust. The Russian narrative concentrates on events termed in Soviet and contemporary Russian historiography as the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). Russians highlighted unique events: battles near Stalingrad, Kursk, Moscow, Berlin, and the blockade of Leningrad. Thus, although the USA and Russia fought together as allies, research shows that there is almost no overlap in which events are remembered as most important. Members of each group mainly remembered those events related to their own country. However, this is not surprising.

.

On the subject of atomic bombings, most respondents believe that the purpose of the bombings was to end the war. Russians see this event as an act of intimidating the USSR. Opinions within countries vary by age: older generations are more likely to support the official version of ending the war.

.

In France in 1945, 57% of the population considered the USSR the main victor. By 2004, this figure had dropped to 20%, while the share of the USA increased to 58%.

.

The reasons are clear: history textbooks and popular culture reinforce national emphasis. In the USA and Great Britain, films and books praising their role in the war predominate. The USSR and the USA fought on different fronts and represent different ideological systems, which determined the narratives. And of course, all countries overstate their role in historical events.

Misguided Lessons with Grok: A Bilingual Blunder | August 19 2025, 23:43

Today Grok blew my mind. I say, teach me French. He says, ok, how do you say “book”? I say “le livre”. He says “wrong! la livra”. 😳The car drives itself anyway, decided to record the dialogue. He’s not convinced. At all, insists on his point. La livra and that’s it. I’m afraid Grok will teach the bad stuff in his Language Tutor mode.

I remembered a story from “Memoirs of Pushkin” by M. E. Yuzefovich, dating to 1829:

he had several books with him, including Shakespeare. One day in our tent, he translated some scenes to me and my brother. I had once studied English, but having not fully learned it, I subsequently forgot it. However, I still recognized its sounds. In Pushkin’s reading, the English pronunciation was so distorted that I suspected his knowledge and decided to test it. The next day, I invited his relative, Zakhar Chernyshev, who knew English as his native language, warned him what was going on, and called over Pushkin with Shakespeare. He willingly started translating for us. Chernyshev burst into laughter at the first words read by Pushkin: “First tell me, in which language are you reading?” Pushkin laughed in turn, explaining that he had taught himself English, and therefore he reads English letters like Latin ones. But the fact is that Chernyshev found the translation completely correct and the language understanding impeccable.”

Anna Derevenitskaya

Exploring Gender and Identity in Michael Davis’s “Madam XY” | August 18 2025, 14:09

We arrived in Sheperdstown yesterday, where there is a studio of a local artist, Michael Davis. His works are very interesting. In the studio, an enormous painting hangs on the whole wall, which immediately brings a smile to those somewhat versed in art, as it’s a riff on Madam X, and the artist decided to add Y — clearly alluding to transgender identity. At first, I thought it was his wife he painted (she seemed to be in charge at the studio yesterday, but perhaps they just resemble the XY model, so I didn’t ask). The strap on Madam XY has fallen, just like in Sargent’s original version before he repainted it and relocated it to avoid complete moral outrage.

A very talented artist. I will definitely visit his classes. Initially, I said “as much as 50 minutes to ride”, but now I think about it and will say “only 50 minutes to ride”.

#artrauflikes

Michael Timothy Davis Fine Art

Gender Stereotypes in Global Symbolism: A Russian TV Perspective | August 15 2025, 14:43

They say this is broadcast on central TV in Russia. I don’t know what they mean by that, but here’s what I thought: people in the clip represent countries, and their gender choice is not random. When they want to depict Russia as a person, they somehow always choose a girl in a kokoshnik, and not a church-going man with a beard like Rasputin or Ivan the Terrible. You might say, well, the word “Russia” is feminine, just as the word America is, but when depicting America, you get some Superman or at least a capitalist like Uncle Sam. Yes, you might say, there’s the Statue of Liberty. True, but in such clips for some reason they don’t put a girl with a seven-point crown as America, and a warrior on a horse as Russia. It’s the other way around.

Though, one would think, girls shown in such a position in commercials are clearly in a submissive role to someone bigger and stronger. It’s interesting if such a clip was made in the USA, it would surely be the opposite — the USA would definitely be represented by a strong woman in a seven-point crown (not a girl), and Russia by some aged man, definitely in a warm tulup and a hat with ear flaps. But surely there would have arisen the question “who then leads whom” and the clip would just not have been released.

One might also recall that Russia is called “Mother Russia” (motherland), whereas for example in Germany it is established as Fatherland (Vaterland). France is definitely associated with the feminine — often depicted as Marianne (La Marianne), the United Kingdom symbolized by the figure of Britannia. Ukraine is definitively feminine, and sadly, the country currently has a serious gender imbalance. As for Mexico, it would surely be depicted as a man with a guitar.