Tag: Hobbies

Seattle’s Monorail: A Vintage Transport Still in Motion | July 22 2025, 16:28

Seattle’s two-station monorail (a world record!), reportedly self-sustaining and extremely popular among tourists despite being arguably the city’s most pointless form of transportation, features the same Alweg trains that have been in operation since its inauguration 63 years ago for the World Fair.

Interestingly, even the one-station monorail has a driver. I recently saw a job posting for a Monorail Driver, paying $20/hour (with a minimum wage of $18.67). Roughly the same hourly rate can be earned by stocking shelves in any supermarket in the USA.

However, the only major accident on the Seattle monorail in 2005 was due to a driver’s error. According to authorities, the driver of a train heading into the city failed to yield to another train at a spot where the tracks are too close together for simultaneous passage.

The problem was that the tracks were installed without the gap necessary for the free passage of trains. Imagine that! At one spot, just so:) This was deliberately designed to allow loading ramps to extend beyond the carriages. For 40 years, careful attention ensured that trains never traveled simultaneously on this section. But then one day, a driver decided to leave early — and the rest is history. As always, Murphy’s Law applies.

Nearby in 1988, the construction of the Westlake Center mall uncovered an issue just days before its scheduled opening. Engineers found the west track was two inches (50 mm) closer to the platform and building than it should have been, making it impossible to use. The issue came to light when a retractable loading ramp at the terminal scratched the blue train during a trial run; the misalignment was caused by a pin in a hinge that did not fold properly. The ramp was repaired in November, but other technical issues and prolonged safety inspections delayed the new terminal’s opening by four months. To avoid redesign, trains were simply not allowed to run simultaneously. As of 2025, bi-directional movement is still NOT anticipated above the narrow gauge section at the southern (Westlake) station:-)

By the way, exactly a month ago, the monorail at VDNKh in Moscow, opened 21 years ago, was permanently closed. There, too, nobody understood its purpose, and moreover, it was brutally unprofitable.

In the photo, Nadia enjoys Seattle

Why Aren’t Smart Systems Widely Used in Commercial Vehicles? | July 18 2025, 20:33

I wonder why smart systems, cameras, driver assistance systems in driving are not used on commercial transport such as trucks and buses? It’s one thing to integrate such statuses into a $35K car, and another into a truck or bus, whose prices start at least at $100-150K, and in some cases more. Buses are often purchased by organizations for whom an extra $5-10K on a price of $100-150 may not make much of a “difference” in deciding what to buy. Although of course understanding that there, with a tender for the minimum price, every thousand could be decisive. On the other hand, insurance might be lower, and it can be nicely sold to people (passengers). Also, it seems that truck drivers falling asleep are simply more dangerous and costly than personal car drivers falling asleep.

Historical Insights into the Legendary Seven-League Boots | July 17 2025, 16:42

Here you have the real “fast-walking boots” or, as they were called in Europe, “seven-league boots,” France/Germany, 19th century. Remember, Mr. Ogre in “Sleeping Boy” wore them. You wouldn’t be mistaken to say that they were difficult not only to run in, but even to walk in. Why are they called “seven-league” then?

This is interesting. Actually, their original name in French is „bottes de sept lieues (seven-league boots), and in German — Siebenmeilenstiefel (seven-league boots), from which the name came into Russian.

Regular postal communication in France started in the 15th century when postal stations with horses for exchange were built. The distance between the stations initially was 7 leagues/lieues (about 30-35 km).

Transportations were performed by coaches that had from 4 to 6 horses. The coachman managed them, and on the lead horse sat the ‘fourrier,’ who set the pace of the journey. The work of the fourrier was more dangerous, as in the event of an accident he had more chances of being injured, falling under the carriage wheels or being crushed by a falling horse compared to the coachdriver.

Therefore, fourriers were entitled to special tall and sturdy boots, which, according to some data, were attached to the saddle (but this is not certain). When mounting, he would wear these boots. That is, in these seven-league boots they didn’t even walk, but sat.

These boots were sewn from several layers of treated leather, with wooden soles and iron inserts. In such boots, it was difficult to fall from the saddle, even if one fell asleep, and if one fell sideways, they could withstand the weight of a horse, protecting the rider from serious injuries.

Naturally, such large and heavy boots, which were often dried by the fire, raised questions among children, and the fourriers, smoking their pipes and smiling, would tell them about the magical seven-league boots that one could put on and leap seven leagues in a blink. Undoubtedly, one of these children must have been Charles Perrault 😉

Unexpected Costs: My Tesla Model Y Windshield Replacement Saga | July 16 2025, 17:26

Well, it hasn’t even been two months since I bought the Model Y, and I’ve already replaced the windshield. An unfortunate stone flew from under the wheels of some truck. The result — a crack that grew every few days of waiting for the repair.

Overall, it was known from the start that Tesla’s service is not as good as their cars, but so far my experience with the service has been most wonderful — except for the fact that I ended up paying $1000 out of the blue (not their fault, of course).

As soon as you get a crack, you create a claim through the app and set up a repair. The nearest available date was in two weeks from that day. The estimate came immediately through the app: $1,140. This included a new windshield ($1000 with a 50% discount) and labor — about $600. The insurance will only pay me $140, because I pay the first thousand as per the insurance terms.

The repair works like this: you arrive at the appointed time, and leave the car. The reception already knows you have arrived and why you are there. The initial estimate for completion in the app was 6 PM — that’s 10.5 hours after the appointed time. I brought two laptops, headphones, a charger, and hadn’t finished my coffee when I received a message that everything was done. It took 40 minutes.

So, the experience with their service was excellent, although of course it would have been better if there had been no need for it at all.

The Art of Lawn Striping: Creating Light and Dark Patterns with Grass | July 14 2025, 14:42

We constantly drive past fields organized into stripes or checks. I finally found the time to look into how this is done. It’s called lawn striping, and the effect is achieved by bending the blades of grass in different directions.

The direction in which the grass bends determines whether a stripe will be light or dark. When the blades lean away from you, the lawn looks lighter because the light reflects off the broad and long surface of the blade. When the blades lean towards you, the lawn appears darker because you are looking at the tips of the blades (smaller reflective surface) and you see shadows under the grass. Therefore, mowing the lawn in opposite directions (up/down, left/right, north/south, east/west, etc.) creates the greatest contrast between the stripes. Interestingly, since the “color” of the stripe depends on the direction from which you look at it, a light stripe will appear dark if viewed from the opposite side.

This fuss over grass is a very American phenomenon. I overcome my laziness to mow the lawn only when the grass has indecently overgrown (the notion of “indecently overgrown” is also something I adjust each year after receiving tsk-tsk letters from the village administration). My neighbor, however, seems to do it every few days, and I once saw him kneeling in the grass—complaining that someone had dragged something across his lot, dropping some chips in the grass and ruining its perfection. Really, the only thing missing was a pair of scissors in his hands.