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(a collaboration between Yuki, me, and Dall-E)

The dog chills on a swing. Thoughts profound

Ooooo! Moon time

Today in the store, I came across Ladyfingers for sale. Couldn’t help but sketch

original in the comments

Halloween is coming

We’ve been storing helium here since early August. It’s almost hitting three months. You don’t need a lot for household purposes, but it still gradually runs out. And where do you store helium?

our everyday life

Reading “Brave New World” by Huxley, I came across the word chypre. Decided to look into it.

Turns out, “chypre” is not just the name of a specific cologne as I always thought, but the name of a certain group (formula) of perfumery scents, based on oakmoss, certain citrus (lemon/bergamot/orange), floral (rose/vanilla/jasmine), woody (sandalwood/patchouli/labdanum) oils, and musk.

And “Chypre” is the French name for the island of Cyprus, where oaks grow which host the lichen Evernia prunastri (oakmoss), from which the first, base component of the fragrance is derived. A lot of “oakmoss” isn’t used anymore, as it is a known allergen. But by definition, the essence of a chypre fragrance is based on oakmoss.

In the USSR, according to the standard, “Chypre” was included in the group of colognes classified as “Extra” with an ethyl alcohol mass content of not less than 70%. Ethyl alcohol, if it’s not of technical grade, is theoretically drinkable, which was practically proven by millions at that time. “Why is the label peeled off the bottle? — Well, what difference does it make to you? — To you it may not matter, but I have to place it on the table…”

(Personally, an elephant stepped on my nose, and I’m not so great with scents)

Right now

45 minutes from home

I noticed that Yuki’s fur is bicolor in some places — for instance, the tip of the hair might be black, while the rest could be white, or vice versa. I started digging into the topic and found a lot of interesting information on how this works. Humans, for example, don’t have this 🙂

It turns out that dogs only have two pigments — gray-brown (eumelanin) and yellow-red (pheomelanin). All other colors are formed through combinations or distortions of these pigments, regulated by genes. Pigmentation is formed by melanocytes. They can turn pigmentation “conditionally” on or off. The “rules” are in the DNA and can be activated by age or external factors (like how rabbits turn white in winter). The depth of color is determined by the concentration of pigments.

The situation where hair has different colors along its length is called agouti. This coloring, when it covers most of the body, is considered the original, ancestral coloring in dogs and is often called “wolf-like” because in wolves this trait is dominant and widespread. By the way, the Shiba Inu is the breed closest to the common ancestor of modern dogs and wolves. Caucasian, Central Asian, German shepherds, malamutes, laikas, huskies, Shiba Inu, schnauzers, Norwegian Elkhound definitely have the agouti locus allele, about the others I do not know.

And a few photos of Yuki 🙂 He generally doesn’t like being photographed, but I love photographing him, and he gives in