Tag: facebook

Yuki sends them from home. He probably dreams that he is an astronaut

Or cucumbers

this morning

What the heck kind of news. LE VENDEUR DE NOUVEAUTÉS À PARIS translates as “the novelty seller in Paris.” Repin lived in Paris for three years from 1873 (actually, the year the painting was written).

https://my.tretyakov.ru/app/masterpiece/77855

Look at these clever guys. I live in a hotel styled like a castle. Well, there are old wooden frames, rusty grills on the windows, somewhat crooked walls, beamed ceilings, etc. And I noticed that when you open a window, the air conditioner turns off. Right then and there. And it turns back on when you close the window. Just like magic. Probably how some people marvel at the escalators in the subway.

I roamed around there with a flashlight, and not without some difficulty, found it! Everything was almost “overgrown” with something like cobwebs, and I managed to take a clear picture only at the second window.

It turns out, a sensor is embedded in the window frame. Just a reed switch with a little magnet. When it opens, it sends a command to pause the air conditioner.

I would replace any metro in the world with Dubai’s. It seems to have no flaws at all

I could never understand why hotels place telephones next to the toilet. Is this a “cultural” thing? No one uses the room phone anymore, except maybe to call the reception. It’s hard for me to imagine a use case where this is done from the toilet.

I found out – apparently, those odd structures are not just for aesthetics, but they actually have a functional purpose. They are called barjeel, or wind towers. I see there are scientific papers claiming these towers reduced indoor temperatures by 10 degrees Celsius. Sticks protrude from the barjeel. Why? They were used to attach sails for better wind collection. Now, it’s merely a tradition. And of course, nobody uses them for cooling in the age of air conditioners anymore. But many stylize their villas to resemble a desert home.

Say what you will, but the Arabs have a knack for design. I often hear that their transition from the desert to civilization happened too quickly, and supposedly this creates problems. I completely disagree. If people truly strive to create a pleasant living environment around them, then in thirty years the best will become even better, and the mediocrities will go sell vegetables at the market. And the reverse path, a fall from civilization to savagery, I fear we may yet see in our lifetime.

P.S. I really like the slide bolt in the toilet.

I apologize, but friends, either make the $20 portions smaller, or the door wider

Interestingly, of the entire globe, satellite internet will not work over just a small piece of Western Africa.

Sitting on the plane, it’s a 15-hour flight, updating the world map in my head and turns out there’s quite a few changes. It turns out the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo are two different countries, separated by the Congo River. Also, it turns out Swaziland is now Eswatini, which is still Swaziland, but in the Swazi language.