Rereading Feynman’s autobiography, this time in English, and my eyes stuck on the word carboy. It turns out that it’s the same as lady jeanne, and the same as demijohn – essentially lady jeanne in French (dame joanne). In short, it’s just a bottle.
Tag: science
Exploring AI Search Agent: Revolutionizing Automated Browsing and Task Completion | August 19 2025, 01:21
In addition to the main product for search testing, I am developing an AI Search Agent in my leisure time. You only need to provide it with two pieces of information: a website to visit and a goal (described in a short paragraph). In other words, this thing is smart enough to function without any setup – just the site and the goal, and then it’s on its own.
How it works: This virtual agent generates search queries on its own, refines them based on the results obtained (for example, simplifies them), and analyzes how well they match the intended purpose. If suitable results are found, the agent can add items to the cart and place an order — if this is configured in the settings.
I’ve already written about this recently – today is just a slightly nicer demo. It will be even nicer as it is still being pulled from the middle of development, but you can already see how the page is analyzed, and there are initial results that can be used.
The agent can be used for several purposes. Firstly, it’s an excellent way to create ground truth—a set of queries with perfect results. These data can then be used for search testing without involving often slow and expensive large language models (LLM). Secondly, it helps to test the search functions before deploying them to users. Thirdly, the agent generates realistic usage data needed for training recommendation models that require authentic interactions.
The colorful rectangles in the video are the language of interaction of the agent with AI (or LLM). To understand where to click, the system annotates the page and sends a structured description of the page to AI—often along with a screenshot—so it can analyze everything and make a decision about the next action.
Exploring TestMySearch.com’s Virtual Shopper System | August 15 2025, 04:27
As part of the TestMySearch.com project, I am creating a “virtual shopper” system that simulates the behavior of a real user in an online store: it starts with an abstract goal (for example, “something bright and sexy for the gym”), turns it into a specific search query, performs the search on the site, and depending on the results, may either continue browsing or, with a certain probability, reformulate the query if the findings do not match the original goal; the system then evaluates the pages for their alignment with the initial idea, opens product cards, randomly changes parameters such as color or size, makes decisions about adding to the cart and placing an order, and may also leave the site, which allows generating many sessions similar to real ones overnight for testing search, filters, and recommendations even before live users arrive.
The system is fully automatic. That is, the browser in the video opens by itself, the search field appears by itself (i.e., independent of the site), the system itself concocts the text based on that very initial goal, then the facets and search results are displayed, which may also be in a form unpredictable to the system — but it still understands what is what, and makes decisions about whether to rephrase the query, select a facet or click on a search result. There is a certain probability that the virtual user will leave the site. If the query is reformulated, for example, this virtual user does not repeat queries that have already led to empty or irrelevant results, so within the session there is “memory”.
The 55 mph Speed Limit: Energy Crisis and State Autonomy in the U.S. | August 13 2025, 01:32
It turned out that the 55 mph speed limit in the USA was the result of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, which was adopted in response to the OPEC oil embargo, causing sharp price increases and oil supply disruptions. It was believed that by limiting speed, fuel consumption would be reduced. It worked, but a reduction of 2.2% was predicted, though the actual savings were only about 0.5–1%.
If a state did not comply, it would lose federal funding for the repair and construction of roads. In 1987–1988, Congress allowed states to raise the speed limit to 65 mph on certain rural interstates, and in 1995, the federal “national maximum” was abolished altogether and authority was returned to the states.
Before the national speed limit was introduced, Montana had no set speed limit. Instead, the law stated that a person should drive at a “safe and reasonable speed,” which was essentially determined by a police officer. There is a tale about a NASCAR driver who was stopped for driving about 120 miles per hour on Highway 2 and was not fined because for him 120 mph was considered “safe and reasonable.”
After the imposition of the 55 mph speed limit, Montana resisted as much as it could. The speed limit was a national law, but the consequences for its violation were determined by the states. Montana lowered the speeding fine to $5 and made sure the violation did not go on the driver’s record. It became common practice to put $5 bills over the sun visor and drive at any speed you liked.
There’s even a song from those times, “I Can’t Drive 55” (Sammy Hagar).
By the way, slightly off topic. My Tesla Model Y costs more in taxes (annual registration) than a gasoline car does because there is a special charge, introduced in 2020, to compensate for state revenue lost from the fuel tax — since electric vehicles do not refill with gasoline, and the state under-collects. The amount of this charge is fixed and equals 85% of the equivalent fuel tax a gasoline car driver would have paid given the same average distance and fuel consumption. As a result, electric vehicle owners pay about $128.14 a year (data for 2024–2025). Gasoline car owners pay significantly less. The last time I was stopped by the police in Washington for having an expiration of one and a half years, I had to park the car and urgently arrange payment – it was a few dozen dollars. After paying, I continued on, but with a fine of a couple hundred dollars.
Exploring Muscadines: A Native Grape with a Rich History | August 12 2025, 20:40
At our supermarket, they sell muscadines – a type of grape that is twice the size of regular ones. The green variety of muscadines is called scuppernong. They have thick skin and seeds a few millimeters in size. Muscadines are a native grape variety, known since the 16th century. Typically, muscadines and scuppernongs are used for making wine, but they are also sold fresh.
I hadn’t seen them before, and probably neither have you.
Exploring Must-Have Russian Books for Science and Art Lovers | August 10 2025, 14:01
Can you recommend some interesting books to bring (or order) from Russia to the USA, considering my interests (popular science, primarily local non-translations from English, as I can read the originals in English, and perhaps drawing) and various other intriguing things (see part of my collection)?
The Art of Illusion in Pricing: Dishwasher Capsules and Subscription Models | August 09 2025, 13:06
An interesting marketing tactic: three different types of dishwasher capsules are sold at the same price: good Complete, premium, and premium plus. Identical packaging, identical prices, but of course, a different number of capsules. For example, platinum has 59 capsules, while the plus version has 47. It seems such odd numbers hardly register in the buyer’s mind, but not every buyer fundamentally thinks about whether it’s important for them to save money. However, if you compare the extreme versions, the platinum plus version is simply twice as expensive as the complete version.
Another interesting example – a subscription to LLM (Chatgpt, Gemini) for $200 a month. It would seem, what fool would pay a couple of hundred for something barely better than the basic for $20-30. But it’s a very sensible decision when you have a market of hundreds of millions of users: most of them are organizations. For an organization, $200 a month is not much different from $20 a month, both are negligible for the budget. Well, okay, even multiplying by hundreds and thousands of subscriptions, there are those who place themselves among slightly more premium clients at a small price for them.
Unlocking Smartwatches with Unique Heart Rhythms: A Missed Opportunity? | August 06 2025, 16:43
Why has no one made it so that smartwatches only unlock on the wrist of their owner, reading their unique heartbeat or other biometric data? This is in addition to having the owner’s phone nearby.
Officially, you can’t disable this in the settings of an Apple Watch — Apple intentionally made it such that when you put on the watch for the first time each day, it always requires a code, even if the iPhone is nearby. This is due to security policy: the watch may end up on someone else’s wrist, and the phone may just be nearby.
Moreover, every person has unique heart rhythm patterns, which include, for example, slight variations in the intervals between heartbeats, characteristics of the heart signal shape, and how the heart responds to different stresses. These microscopic differences create a unique picture” of heart rhythm that is difficult to fake or replicate. Watches have quite a lot of time, after being worn and before they are needed unlocked, to collect, process, and decide whether to unlock or not.
Aluminum: From Precious Metal to Everyday Marvel | August 03 2025, 01:09
The USA imports aluminum mainly from Canada because aluminum leaves Canada and arrives in the USA. And from Europe, it would be alumin𝒊um!
Also, sapphires and rubies are essentially rusty aluminum, where in the process the new material becomes much harder than the original. In interaction with oxygen, different varieties of the mineral corundum are formed, which chemically is crystalline aluminum oxide (formula Al₂O₃). And bulletproof glass is essentially transparent rusty aluminum, aluminum oxide, but with aluminum nitride.
Also, aluminum was the most valuable metal on Earth until the 20th century. When Napoleon III entertained guests, they ate with golden spoons, while he used an aluminum one. And the “cap” of our Washington Monument is made of aluminum for that very reason.
Decade Without Police Sirens: A Personal Observation in Public Safety Trends | August 02 2025, 23:48
Interestingly, I haven’t heard a single car siren in almost ten years, except from medical and fire vehicles. At least around here, it seems even the police don’t use them for their purposes. Apparently, the reason is that a police car with a siren behind is perceived as a command to stop and be ready to show your documents. But fire trucks and ambulances, it seems, always use theirs.
Many people don’t know that what we think of as an ambulance doesn’t really exist here. That is, you can call 911 and request a medical vehicle, and they will come, but it’s usually only done in truly critical situations—like a heart issue or if you’ve fallen from a staircase and can’t get up.
This service, EMS, always sends a bill. The minimum is $550, but typically more than $1000, depending on the type of vehicle sent—which depends on what was said on the phone—and how many miles it is to the hospital.
If transportation to a hospital is necessary, an insurance company, Medicare, or Medicaid initially pays for it. The patient might only need to pay the difference—for example, a co-pay or a deductible. If the person is unable to pay due to financial hardship, CNS will not send the bill to collections nor will they recover the debt.
If you call 911 and report that someone has fallen from a ladder, especially with a suspected head, neck, or back injury, the dispatcher will send a full fire & EMS response. That means, besides the medics, this big red fire truck shows up. It arrives not because there’s a fire, but because it is staffed with EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) who can begin assistance even before the ambulance arrives. Additionally, fire stations in the area are positioned such that the nearest fire truck can get there faster than a free ambulance.
In various incidents, if you can get to the hospital on your own, experience shows that it’s often necessary to go if you want results. This is not free either. Every such visit costs me $200 (insurance pays ten times more), but as it turned out later, it was always worth it. You just need to know where to go, and choose large facilities where the queues are shorter.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 