Misadventures in Keyboard Layouts: Searching for Gremlin, Finding Surprises | April 28 2026, 20:33

This is me typing the word gremlin, without switching the keyboard layout. Wanted to read about the query language for graph databases, need it for work. Google surprises, it does surprise

Rethinking Karma: A Crafted Tale of Redemption and Survival | April 27 2026, 21:37

An interesting interview with Ilya Remeslo by Sobchak. But if I were Ilya’s political technologist, I would have suggested a much more coherent story: as if, one morning, he woke up, looked back at the past, and decided to fix his karma, rather than drown. Everything I did before that morning – my past life. We can talk about it, but for me, it is a closed page, I am ashamed of it, and if someday they decide to punish me for it – it would be fair, I am ready. If they punish for today’s stance – it would be unjust, but I am ready nonetheless. Either option is better than drowning, hence the boldness. Such a story would have been much more coherent, and it doesn’t matter if it has anything to do with reality.

From realistic explanations, I keep to myself that the guy was genuinely threatened with death, someone close to the powers that be, unclear why, the reasons could be numerous, and from all the options on what to do, this one had the best chances of staying alive because if the threat is realized now, the ratings will drop even more. Well, if he is jailed, it’s almost state protection from threats.

There’s one more thing. Possibly, this individual made it known to the right people that if he is locked up, some very serious dirt will immediately go to the media, but if nothing happens to him, there will be silence.

Colorful Climbing: A Fun Indoor Adventure with Masha | April 27 2026, 15:03

Went to the mountains with Masha. Yellow paths over yellow, red over red. The organizers should put a box of candies at the top. Found out that the muscles in my fingers are non-existent, and the rest hurt the next day. Cool experience (not the first time)

Cherenkov Radiation: The Ethereal Blue Glow of Nuclear Decay | April 26 2026, 23:52

In the picture – Cherenkov radiation. This is me in 2009 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, standing in the hall with the nuclear reactor. The water in the photo is for slowing down neutrons and cooling spent fuel rods. The glow occurs when electrons are ejected from the fuel at a speed exceeding the phase velocity of light in water. Kind of like a sound barrier, but for light. The intensity of this glow can roughly indicate how “fresh” the fuel is in the pool. The brighter and denser the blue, the more active the decay processes are. Interestingly, Cherenkov radiation is the reason why there is no absolute darkness at great depths of the ocean floor.

Near-Miss at Leningrad: The Unknown Predecessor to Chernobyl | April 26 2026, 17:32

On the anniversary of Chernobyl. Those interested in this topic may not know that a similar accident could have occurred ten years earlier on the main (very first RBMK-1000 unit) Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.

There was a nearly identical situation: one turbine in operation, reactor shutdown by emergency protection, and subsequent power escalation.

Back then, the situation was saved by the Chief Reactor Operator Mikhail

Karrask, who, acting intuitively and relying on his experience with industrial reactors, introduced into the reactor in portions

12 manual control rods

BEFORE pressing the emergency shutdown button.

A couple of years ago, Karrask passed away. This story is almost unknown outside the industry. For proof, google his obituary on Rosatom.

The technical part. The main danger of the RBMK reactors at that time was in the design of the control rods. At the bottom, they were equipped with graphite “displacers”. When the emergency shutdown button was pressed, the rods began moving down, and in the first seconds, the graphite tips did not dampen the reactor, but on the contrary, displaced the water and increased the power in the lower part of the active zone. But precisely, the instructions in case of trouble suggested pressing the emergency shutdown button. If you followed the instructions, “Chernobyl” would have happened earlier.

After the incident at the Leningrad NPP, a commission was formed. Experts (including those from the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy) pointed out the dangerous design flaws of the RBMK – the positive void coefficient of reactivity and incorrect design of the rods. Unfortunately, extensive changes to the design of all RBMK reactors were not made at that time. Only operational regulations recommendations were given, which, as history showed, were insufficient to prevent the tragedy in Chernobyl.

Silence for Cents: Exploring the SwissBrand 120-Pack Mouth Tape | April 24 2026, 18:25

If your other half needs to be silenced temporarily, you can buy a kit for 120 silencings from us, averaging just under six cents per silence

The Art of the Unresolved Finale: Viewer Frustration as a Narrative Tool | April 20 2026, 13:27

We finished watching the series “Pete”. It seems like TV directors do everything to ensure that the last episode offers no answers, resembling just a regular mid-season episode. In many TV shows, the second-to-last or third-to-last episodes answer the questions, while the final one rarely satisfies, always adding a multitude of hooks and new questions, probably serving as an invitation to a next season that may never come. Or it might, but for now the director doesn’t know what it will entail and leaves much unsaid. However, the likely goal is to irritate viewers so that they flock to Reddits and Facebooks to discuss what they’ve seen. A logical end was only seen in the series Chernobyl, it seems.