Tag: science

Unveiling Ancient Numeric Codes in “Slave for Sale” by José Jiménez Aranda | June 27 2025, 21:00

An interesting painting “Slave for Sale” (Una Esclava en Venta), 1897, by Spanish artist Jose Jimenez Aranda.

From it, I learned that just as there were Roman numerals, there were Greek ones in Greece. Pay attention to the plate. It reads ΡΟΔΟΝ ΕΤΩΝ ΙΗ ΠΩΛΕΙΤΑΙ ΜΝΑΣ Ω, which translates to “Rhodon, 18 years old, for sale for 800 minae”.

In the Greek text, there are two numbers – ΙΗ and Ω. In those times, Greeks wrote numbers using letters: Α (alpha) = 1, Β = 2, …, I = 10, K = 20, …, Ρ = 100, Σ = 200, …, Ω = 800.

Accordingly, ΙΗ is 18. The line above it indicates that it is a number, as does the line above Ω.

Exploring Maya Ruins and Termite Tunnels in Playa del Carmen | June 27 2025, 18:59

Here in Playa del Carmen, there are about a dozen abandoned Maya-era buildings that you can climb over and into, of course free of charge and at any time. Inside one of them, in a small room, I found interesting termite mud tunnels, which I had never seen in person before.

The Surprising Origins of Chain Link Fencing | June 26 2025, 10:08

Deception is everywhere. I googled “chain link fence” and it turns out that Karl Rabitz has nothing to do with it, but instead relates to a different one, and the very first of the known documented images of the chain link fence was found in… a mattress patent. More precisely, in the US patent No. 124,286 “Wire Fabrics”, issued on March 5, 1872, to a certain Mr. Peters (J. W. C. Peters).

From Drugs to Souvenirs: The Bizarre Market for Fake Medications | June 22 2025, 17:11

Look how they sell Ozempic, right along with sneakers and souvenirs. In the pharmacy here, they sell antibiotics and opioid pain relievers.

Exploring Faust and the Zoologist: The Dual Life of Translator Khodkovsky | June 18 2025, 04:06

I’m listening to the second part of Faust and simultaneously googling translator Holodkovsky. It turns out that translating Faust was something of a hobby for the scholar-zoologist Holodkovsky, spanning 60 years. Holodkovsky has hardly any original writings—only translations, and from the translations, everything else, as they say, is minor details.

That is, Goethe wrote Faust for 60 years, and the entomologist-translator translated it for 40 years and spent another 20 catching bugs, imagine? What a scale of projects.

In fact, apart from being the author of probably the best translation of Faust, Holodkovsky is almost absent in literature. But as a zoologist, he left much more of a mark. True, it’s hard for non-entomologists to read without a smile, but here are his main works: “Male Genitalia of Diptera,” “Atlas of Human Helminths,” “On the Oral Organs of Some Insects Parasitizing Humans,” “Coexistence and Societies of Animals,” and others.

Unraveling the Layers of Echidna: From Faust to Mythology | June 13 2025, 04:21

In the second part of Faust, he encountered an echidna and realized that he did not understand

“Oh wonder! The clew turned into an egg,

The egg swelled up — what is within?

Two dreadful twins emerged —

A vampire with an echidna — from the egg.

The echidna writhes here crawling,

The vampire hovers under the ceiling”

It turned out that in the lexicon of the 18th-19th centuries, an echidna was a venomous snake. I mean, sarcastic, spiteful, sharp, cunning, mocking me, of course, I know this word, but that it literally signified a snake, I learned for the first time. And in Greek mythology, the half-woman half-snake Echidna was apparently the mother of Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera, and Cerberus

Preserving History in Metal: The Story of U.S. Historical Markers | June 08 2025, 13:24

A rather useful thing was invented in the USA. How do you make sure that history is preserved for centuries? Books burn, the internet is obviously a temporary phenomenon. Across the entire US territory stand these signs called Historical Markers. There are already over 220,000 of them. They are practically indestructible — these are raised letters on a thick metal plate. Often there’s a quite wordy paragraph on them, and they are placed not only in recreational areas but often in places where you can neither drive up to them nor easily walk up. For example, you’re driving on a highway where you can’t go under 40 miles per hour, and there’s nowhere to stop, and somewhere off the road in the field there’s a marker for deer about some battle. Well, apparently, they believe that when they will be needed, there won’t be a problem in accessing them.

A Close Encounter with a Scentless Fawn | June 04 2025, 15:13

I walked with Yuki and he passed by a little deer less than a meter away without noticing. This is a dog that can smell a hare running past the house by scent. It turns out that fawns are born almost odorless, and this saves their lives.

It is precisely because of their nearly complete lack of smell that does leave their young alone for extended periods. Mothers leave fawns for several hours at a time during the first weeks after birth so that their own smell does not transfer to the babies. During this time, the mother returns several times a day to feed her young. Although she may not be continuously near the fawn, she is usually somewhere close by, and surely worried about seeing us around her baby.

However, it’s not only the lack of smell that helps fawns remain hidden from potential predators. The white spots on their fur are another protective measure. When a fawn walks, the spots may seem obvious, but when the mother leaves it to hide in tall grass or other covers, these spots mimic dappled sunlight falling on the forest floor, as noted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Such spotted coloring, combined with the faint smell, makes it difficult for predators to find fawns. Typically, the spots disappear by winter when young deer are old enough to survive on their own.

It is said that fawns are born in late May-early June. Today is precisely June 4. They’re right on schedule!

Despite the fact that he is lying in the open sun in thirty-degree heat, overall, if necessary, he can move on his own. Fawns are born generally ready for life in the wild and are generally able to run immediately after birth (albeit poorly).