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Exploring the iBot: A Leap in Personal Mobility Technology | January 11 2025, 00:34

Today I finally made it to the exhibition Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment – over an hour in line. Nadya says – look at that interesting wheelchair.

Nadya and I had been wheeling her dad around for many years. He fell ill, ended up without legs, and the wheelchair literally became an extension of him in everyday life. Just your “basic” wheelchair. We took him to the Black Sea by car several times, traveled abroad, and of course experienced all the “delights” of accessibility in Russia. Actually, I don’t even know how to translate “accessibility” into Russian properly. “Barrier-free environment”? It was not barrier-free, it was downright threateningly barriered. For example, we simply couldn’t get to the doctor at the clinic because the elevator was too narrow.

So, back to the wheelchair in the photograph. It’s the iBot by Mobius Mobility. It’s no longer customary to call them “wheelchairs,” it’s a “personal mobility device.” It operates both in balancing mode, where only two wheels are used — essentially, like a Segway, and in a four-wheel mode when terrain handling is needed. In two-wheel mode, the seat raises to a height of 91 cm, allowing the seated individual to be more or less at eye level with others. It also has a mode for climbing/descending stairs — that’s really cool. The range is 35 km in balance mode.

The iBot was invented by the same guy who invented the Segway — Dean Kamen. Overall, this startup is several years old, with several generations of the iBot already released.

Yes, the price of such a device ranges from 32 to 40 thousand dollars. Quite a lot. But it’s said that about half can be covered by insurance (still a lot, though).

There are a few people around us in wheelchairs. And there were few in Russia too. But in Russia, there were few because they just couldn’t leave the house, and each outing for the family or companion turned into a project that would be good to plan in advance. Here in the USA, there are few for another reason. Here, in case of problems, they don’t just hand out a wheelchair, they give a new leg or a new joint. And only if it’s completely irrepairable, then they resort to a wheelchair. Yes, such operations can cost a fortune for people without insurance, it’s a known problem, but usually, some charitable foundations are found.

For example, near our house is the organization ECHO (Every Citizen Has Opportunities). Besides helping financially with adjusting to a new way of life, they offer jobs to people who land in such trouble, they also provide free transportation (to work, to the store, etc.) and socialization.

Names Transformed: The Art of Celebrity Name Changes | January 10 2025, 03:22

There’s this Polish poet, Julian Tuwim. A funny story from his book: “…It reminds me of a story about a gentleman by the name of Abel, who went to America. There, they called him Ebel. So, he started spelling his name as Ebel. After that, they began calling him Ibel. He then wrote it as Ibel. Then they started calling him Aybel. And thus, on his business card appeared the surname Ajbel, which Americans pronounced as Edgebel. Later, the business card showed the surname Edżbel… Long story short, a few months later, Mr. Abel left America as Mr. Kопстручумчивадзе.”

That just came to my mind. Loads of famous people in the USA changed their names, for various reasons. And it was interesting to find out who— for me, quite a lot of new names.

Charles Aznavour, it turns out, was Shahnour Vaghinak Aznavourian. Sophia Loren — Sofia Villani Scicolone. Bob Dylan — Robert Allen Zimmerman (AAAA!). It’s common knowledge that Marilyn Monroe was Norma Jeane Mortenson. Elton John, turns out, is Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Our Jean Reno is not even French. He’s Juan Moreno Herrera Jiménez! Charlie Shein — Carlos Irvin Estévez. Demi Moore — Demetria Jean Guynes. Pablo Picasso — Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Ruiz-y-Picasso.

Marc Chagall was Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov. Cary Grant, the Hollywood legend, was Archibald Alexander Leach. Another legend, Natalie Wood — Natalia Zacharenko. “Joker” Joaquin Phoenix — Joaquin Raphael Bottom. Apparently, Bottom wasn’t the best surname for an acting career. Natalie Portman — Neta-Lee Hershlag, she’s Jewish. Kirk Douglas — Issur Danielovitch Demsky (AAAA!).

Lady Gaga — Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

Remember Avraam Russo? Abraham Ipjian. Syrian Armenian. Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, turns out his mother was Belarusian — Steven Victor Tallarico. Nicolas Cage — Nicolas Kim Coppola (yes, he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola).

Turns out, Mark Twain was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and Hulk Hogan — Terry Eugene Bollea. Olivia Wilde — Olivia Cockburn. Helen Mirren (starred in Tinto Brass’s “Caligula” among other things) — Helen Lydia Mironoff, she’s Russian on her father’s side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfKZclMWS1U

Exploring the Boundaries of AI in Dreyfus’s Pioneering Work | January 10 2025, 01:40

Currently skimming through a book, Dreyfus (1972) – What Computers Can’t Do – The Limits of Artificial Intelligence. In it, across 300 pages, the author convincingly, with numerous references to scientific papers, argues that, for example, programming a chess game is impossible, and intuitive and situational human tasks, such as understanding natural language, are even more profoundly unprogrammable.

The conclusion of the book is that instead of striving for complete autonomy, AI researchers should focus on enhancing human intelligence and exploring the fundamental differences between human and machine minds. They should probably read this book first.

And 53 years later, I am using AI to translate and extract key ideas from this book.

Hubert Dreyfus passed away 7 years ago. Overall, he probably began to suspect long ago that things were not as he had written in the book, because in 1992 he wrote a second series “What Computers Still Can’t Do”.

But the funniest thing is that the 1972 book was printed in Russian in 2010 and can be purchased; it is still widely sold on “Ozone” for 976 rubles. Labeled as NEW!

Adam Clague: Impressionist Painter and His Love for Mandarins | January 10 2025, 00:56

Adam Clague is an American impressionist painter with a particular fondness for mandarins at Christmastime! His wife, Andrea, is also an artist and definitely deserves a dedicated post someday. The light in his paintings is stunning, and his studies are truly fascinating. I’ve selected a few pieces that caught my eye.

Similar posts are grouped under the hashtag #artrauflikes, and all 139 can be found in the “Art Rauf Likes” section on beinginamerica.com (unlike Facebook, which tends to forget—or overlook—nearly half).

Navigating Nabokov’s Narratives: A Journey Through “Lolita” and Beyond | January 09 2025, 00:51

I finished reading Nabokov’s “Lolita.” Started it in the original English, sporadically switched to the Russian translation, and fully switched to it in the second part.

In brief: it’s Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” in prose due to the convoluted plot and “Leon” for its straightforwardness.

Indeed, the novel’s title features what is essentially a secondary character. The novel is not really about Dolores Haze. Essentially, it’s Humbert’s confession, as Humbert himself titled this book within a book.

I must admit, it feels like I missed half of the subtext, surely so obvious to more sophisticated readers.

Did Quilty exist? Was there an Annabel Lee? And overall, can Humbert be trusted? Is there anyone good in the novel at all?

“Lolita,” like the “The Defense” I read before it, is largely about form, not plot. It’s about “how,” not “what.” Why does Nabokov remind me of Lynch here? Because both seem to overestimate their audience – reader and viewer, respectively. They believe that the intricacies and minutiae cannot only be noticed but also not fail to be seen how beautifully they come together into a pattern and change, like a prism, a generally simple plot.

I was “re-reading” “The Defense” while listening to the audiobook on a drive from New Orleans. 12 hours. For instance, I noticed a reference to the very ending of the book (which you simply don’t know at first reading) at the very beginning, and then essentially a foreshadowing of what the plot would end up like — a book in a book, which is part of the plot (trying to avoid spoilers here). As the author himself wrote: “A book should not be read — it can only be re-read. A good reader, a choice reader, an active and creative reader, is a re-reader.”

Well, now “Pnin” is next in line. Wish me luck — its complexity promises an even bigger challenge. And after that, I might dare to take on “The Gift” — I foresee drowning there altogether.

Exploring the Dual Talents of Jie Gao in Game Design and Portraiture | January 08 2025, 15:43

Meet Jie Gao, a Chinese-American artist primarily engaged in game design, though he also has remarkable works in oil painting (which is why he’s on my radar), particularly in portraiture. As a beginner, I find his paintings fascinating to study—they’re very “informative” in terms of technique.

Posts like this are grouped under the hashtag #artrauflikes, and all 138 can be found in the “Art Rauf Likes” section on beinginamerica.com (unlike Facebook, which tends to neglect—or outright ignore—nearly half of them).

Celebrity Wisdom: Perception vs. Reality | January 08 2025, 03:57

I’ve always been curious: why do people assume that famous singers, musicians, and even artists must be intelligent? For instance, if some lady with a mere three years of schooling blathers some nonsense on the tram, nobody rushes to tweet about it, right? But if it’s not a lady from the tram, but a lady from the TV, suddenly there’s this expectation for her to be sensible.

I also don’t understand why sometimes these same singers are asked to comment on events. And others, probably their fans, for some reason regard their opinions as more substantial than those of an unknown person who is, obviously, closer to the topic.

There are good examples, though—like Makarevich, whose interviews on arbitrary topics genuinely reflect an understanding of how the world works and, I can’t quite find the word, wisdom, perhaps. But if you look deeper—he is just another intelligent person. There are many like him, but he also sings. And if an interviewer wants to talk to him, it’s only because Makarevich has something to say. Most celebrities, in general, have nothing to say. And often, even if a thought does mature in their head, they can’t express it clearly.

If you think about it, people who from an early age dedicated themselves to a profession—athletes, actors, often musicians—inevitably see the world around them skewed by their passion. Frankly, much of it remains unseen to them.

The same goes for Polunin, who can’t write in Russian without a dictionary, yet for some reason, people are interested in his opinion on matters other than the very thing he’s been doing since childhood.

Snowfall and Monsters: Unveiling the Apocalypse Hellfire 6×6 | January 06 2025, 14:19

We had snowfall, and monsters began to appear on the roads.

This is the Apocalypse Hellfire 6×6, a product of Apocalypse Manufacturing. It’s based on a Jeep Gladiator with an 800 horsepower engine. Overall, Apocalypse has quite a lot of different designs, and they are all superb from a design standpoint.

In terms of brutality and design, the renders on the website look somewhat better than this particular instance. Perhaps the workshop invests more into aesthetics each year, and on the road, we encountered something from “past collections.”