Tag: science

Insights from a Visit to the Civil War Medical Museum | March 10 2026, 15:59

Today a big interesting historical post.

Where I was: Historical Museum of Military (Civil War) Medicine in Frederick, MD. Entry is $9, $15 with a guide. For an hour and a half, we got a very smart guy who gave an interesting lecture, making the provincial museum really very interesting. We even tipped the guy afterward.

A few interesting facts that I didn’t know before. During the Civil War in the USA (1861-1865), there was a monstrous scale of losses – over 600,000 people. One in every ten was mobilized for the war. That is, excluding women, children, and the disabled – yes, someone from almost every family fought.

Apparently, Americans were not very experienced in wars back then, and organizing large groups of people was based on the “fend for yourself” principle. From gastrointestinal diseases alone, nearly four times more people died than from wounds. Soldiers cooked everything themselves – there was no cook or porridge for the platoon. They split into micro-groups of a few people, pooled whatever they had, and fried it on a fire. For some reason they mainly fried, not boiled (which also contributed to diseases). Their main rations were salt pork and hard-tack — crackers as hard as a stone. Fried hard-tacks were called Skillygalee.

Remember, it was not like that in European wars. And all because there were many of them, and they quickly figured out how to make them more effective. Plus, there was also a civil war, poorly organized and spontaneous.

Initially, soldiers were handed money in the field and they sent it to their families as best they could (not all reached its destination). For Southerners, money devalued faster than they could carry it to the tent. Back then, each state issued its own money. They write about 8000 different banknotes at that time. I didn’t quite believe it, started researching, and it turned out that this is still a very conservative estimate. Yes, anyone (state, city, private bank, railway, factory, and even a pharmacy) could print their own paper money. Each bank issued banknotes of its own design for different denominations ($1, $2, $3, $5, etc.). In 1860, there were about 1600 private banks in the USA, and almost each issued its own range of notes. But in the end, greenbacks – federal money prevailed.

They also told us about Dorothea Dix, the head of army nurses for the Union. She introduced an interesting age standard for the nurses. No “young and beautiful.” Only women over 30 years of age, “plain-looking,” no jewelry, fashionable dresses, or crinolines – only strict brown or black dresses. At that time, the appearance of a woman in a male military camp was considered almost indecent. Dorothea wanted the soldiers to see in the nurses strict mothers or aunts, not objects of flirtation.

To join the army, a volunteer was required to have at least two teeth opposing each other. Why? A soldier needed to quickly bite off the tip of a paper cartridge to pour the powder into the barrel. No teeth — you’re useless in battle.

Back then, they shot with Minié balls – made of soft lead. It was huge caliber (thumb-sized) and when it hit the body, it didn’t just pass through, it “burst” and literally turned bone into fine crumble. Repairing such a bone was impossible, so amputation became the only way to save a person from gangrene. At least there was some form of anesthesia (chloroform/ether).

Before the Civil War in the USA, people were buried where they died. But the war generated a demand: affluent Northern families wanted to bring their sons’ bodies home. That’s when embalming flourished. Right behind the front line were tents of “embalming surgeons” who for a decent sum (about $50–$100 for an officer) extracted blood and injected chemicals (arsenic and zinc) into the body. Actually, the museum building included such a place. Lincoln’s body after his assassination was transported across the entire country on a train, and it looked “alive” thanks to this new technology, which became the best advertisement for the new industry.

Overall, Frederick is a very nice city, full of art and nonconformists 🙂 Like our Leesburg, but 20 times bigger.

P.S. It was interesting to study what drove people to go die. Of course, our guide said “patriotism”.

But if you google, it turns out not quite so. Of course, in 1861 no one knew that the war would last 4 years and take 600,000 lives.

Reason #1 – boredom. Life on a farm in the mid-19th century was incredibly monotonous. War seemed like the greatest adventure in life. Guys thought: “I’ll go, see the world, shoot, become a hero, and then return to harvest.”

Reason #2 – naivety. The first volunteers went to the front as if on a picnic. In the first major battle (Bull Run), civilians from Washington even came with picnic baskets to watch the “spectacle,” until they were swept away by the retreating crowd of bloodied soldiers.

Reason #3 – “honor.” In the 19th century, “honor” was not an empty word. If you were a healthy guy and didn’t go to the army, you became an outcast in your own town. It’s written that girls often refused to go out with those who didn’t wear a uniform.

Reason #4 – “regimental solidarity.” As I already said, regiments were formed from neighbors. Not going to war meant betraying your friends, brothers, and father. Shame before neighbors was stronger than the fear of death.

What did they fight for?

Here the goals of the North and South radically differed:

For the North, the main idea was “Integrity of the Union.” For them, the USA was a great experiment in democracy that could not be allowed to fail. The slogan “Save the Union” was more powerful than “Free the Slaves.” At first, not everyone was ready to die for abolition of slavery.

For the South (Confederacy), the main motivation was “Defending their homes.” Most Southern soldiers did not own slaves (slavery was too expensive a luxury for ordinary farmers). But they were convinced that the “Yankee northerners” were coming to seize their land, burn their homes, and impose their rules. They saw themselves as heirs of Washington, fighting against “tyrant” Lincoln.

Reason #5 – bounties

When initial enthusiasm faded (by 1863), pure calculation played its part. States and the federal government started paying huge “enlistment bounties.” A sum of $500–$1000 was equivalent to a few years’ earnings for a laborer. For a poor immigrant (Irish or German) just off the boat in New York, it was a chance to provide for a family or buy a farm after the war.

In 1862-63, both sides introduced the draft, as volunteers were running out. This exposed social injustice.

In the North, you could officially avoid the army by paying $300 (huge money for a poor man, but manageable for the middle class) or find a “substitute” (a person who would fight in your place for money).

In the South, there was the “Twenty Negro Law.” Owning 20 or more slaves exempted you from service, as you were “needed in the rear for production control.”

This caused fierce resentment among ordinary soldiers. The famous “Draft Riots” in New York (1863) were sparked precisely by this sense of injustice.

So there you have it 🙂

The Curious Etymology of the Turkey: Naming Perceptions Across Languages | March 09 2026, 21:36

I wondered why turkey is called turkey here and what it’s called in Turkey. In Turkey, it’s called hindi – turkey! Decided to see what it’s called in India. Haha, in Hindi, it’s called Turkish (टर्की). Let’s see in other languages. Portuguese – Peru. That means, for them, it’s Peruvian. In Spanish – pavo, which refers to peacock 🙂 “pavone” in Italian – peacock. In French – dinde, because this bird came from the West Indies (America). Comes from poule d’Inde – “hen from India/West Indies”. Greek – “Γαλοπούλα” “French bird”.

Gravitational Mastery: Semikhatov’s Cinematic Triumph | March 09 2026, 14:56

Semikhatov’s movie about gravity turned out to be really cool. Of course, it’s quite popular, but understandably so – they didn’t want to scare off the audience. It’s very cool and professionally made.

I have Semikhatov’s book on my shelf (“Everything That Moves”). It’s also popular, but it’s a bit more serious in its presentation, at times with formulas and loaded with illustrations. Later, my opinion of him slightly soured due to his specific way of conducting podcasts, constantly interrupting guests and answering his own questions in a way that outshines the guest demonstratively. But in the movie, he looks absolutely great. I recommend it.

The link is in the first comment.

Exploring Redundancy in Toponymy: From European Rivers to the Hill of Hills | March 08 2026, 02:54

Reading Nabokov, there “…with the dash of the Danube in his veins…”. Turns out, Danube is Дунай. But that’s okay, trivial stuff, the interesting thing is something else. That Don, Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, Donets, Dvina, and Disna essentially mean more or less the same thing – river. Apparently, the ancient people were not always rich in imagination when it came to toponymy. If you live by the water, you simply call it “River”. Over time, others came, heard this word, took it as a proper name, and altered it slightly to fit their accent. This way “River” (Danu) transformed into a dozen different names across the map of Europe.

The river Volga essentially is also just “river”. Okay, slightly different, “Volga” comes from the Proto-Slavic *Vòlga, which literally means “moisture” or “water”.

Also, it turned out that the Sahara desert is named so because Sahara (الصحراء) is desert. And the Gobi desert is called Gobi because Gobi in Mongolian is desert.

While googling, I stumbled upon another fun thing. There’s a place in England, Torpenhow Hill. The name is composed of four different linguistic layers: Tor — in Old English “hill”, Pen — in Cumbric “hill”, How — in Old Norse “hill”, Hill — in modern English “hill”. Result: “Hill-hill-hill-hill”. Likely, each new people arriving in this area didn’t understand that Tor, Pen, and How were already names for the hill, and added their variant of the word “hill”.

Boney M Beyond the Stage: Unveiling the Voices and Ventures | March 07 2026, 15:11

It turned out that my childhood group, Boney M,

1) is still touring. Concerts in 2026. But from the whole group it’s only

2) Maizie Williams who is lighting it up now, she’s 74 years old. But on none of the Boney M records from those times is her voice found. They let her sing in concerts, yes.

3) Frank Farian, the group’s creator, is a white guy from Germany who assembled exotics” in 1974. A couple of years ago he died in his home in Florida.

4) And “that black guy” – that’s Bobby Farrell, who was a DJ from Aruba before Farian hired him to lip-sync the male parts recorded by Farian himself in all Boney M songs. Seriously, listen to Boney M and pay attention to the male parts. Now that you know who actually sang them, you won’t be able to unhear Farian’s strong German accent 🙂

5) Boney M were the first Western group (from FRG!) to penetrate the Iron Curtain.” They had concerts as early as 1978.

6) Remember their song “Rasputin”? Bobby Farrell died on the same date (Dec 30) and in the same city (in St. Petersburg) as Rasputin. At the “Ambassador” Hotel, which is literally a few minutes’ walk from the Yusupov Palace, where Grigory was killed.

By the way, Frank Farian was the king of “lip-sync” projects. Ten years after Boney M’s success he pulled the same stunt with the duo Milli Vanilli. But in the case of Boney M, he got away with it (everyone understood that it was a show), but with Milli Vanilli, there was a huge scandal: the group’s Grammy Award was revoked when it turned out the pretty model-boys on stage hadn’t sung a single note.

Seeking Alpha Testers for a Revolutionary Text and PDF Management Tool | March 03 2026, 03:02

Looking for alpha-testers. As part of R&D and for my own tasks, I wrote a productivity tool (I actually wrote about this in my last post, but Facebook said that because I put a link in the post, only 12% saw it). Now I want to check if it will be useful to anyone else. If the idea resonates with you — let me know, and I will share access.

Website smartfolio dot me. What’s the main idea?

It’s an online notebook for working with text and PDFs, organized as a graph. It looks like Google Docs, but there’s an important difference: you can attach “child” documents to specific parts of the main text to expand on details or clarify concepts. These “comments” themselves are full documents and can have their own nested branches.

If there’s a fragment in the text that is unclear, you can ask the system to explain it (this will require your Google Gemini API key).

The system uses the full context of the document to generate a response.

Explanations are permanently attached to a specific place in the text.

This is super convenient when reading complex scientific articles. For instance, you can highlight the authors’ surnames in a PDF and instantly get a background on them — the information will be attached right to that fragment on the page.

Typical workflow

Upload a complex text and read it right in the app from either a mobile or a computer. As you go, add manual or AI-generated notes to important or unclear sections for future reference.

I do not store your documents, PDFs, images, or API keys on my servers. All data is stored in Turso DB (SaaS, free up to 5 GB).

Screenshots on the website’s main page best describe the project.

How to try?

To register in the app, you need an invite code. Just write me in the comments or in a private message, and I will send it.

Website smartfolio-dot-me

Exploring the Mystical Connection Between π² and g in Defining a Meter | March 01 2026, 17:11

It turns out that π² ≈ g is not some mystical coincidence. When the first scientists contemplated the definition of the meter, there was one elegant proposal: to make the meter equal to the length of a pendulum that takes exactly one second to swing from one side to the other.

For a mathematical pendulum, the period of oscillation is calculated by the formula: T = 2π √(L / g). If we take the length L = 1 meter and set the full period T = 2 seconds (so that it takes exactly one second for each half swing), the equation implies: g = π² (m/s²).

The definition of the meter was later changed: it was tied to one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along the meridian passing through Paris. However, this geodetic definition was inspired by the earlier idea with the pendulum. Notably, both approaches match up with an accuracy of 1%. Essentially, since the old “pendulum” definition was the main candidate for a long time, values were adjusted so that the new meter was convenient and close to the measurements customary at that time.

It is also interesting that the number of seconds in a year roughly corresponds to the number of pi * 10^7. Earth’s orbital speed is about v = 30 km/s. The distance from the Sun to Earth is approximately r = 150,000,000 km. Thus, over a year, Earth travels a path of about d = 2 * π * r. Then, the orbital period equals T = d/v = π * 2 * r/v = π * 10⁷ seconds.

The Lasting Legacy of Heaven’s Gate: A Cult’s Continuing Online Presence | February 28 2026, 04:09

Remember the American cult that had 39 members simultaneously self-extinguish in a mansion near San Diego, believing that they would be picked up by aliens? Well, their website is still up and running. The earliest version of this site from 1999 is virtually indistinguishable from what’s on the site now. The only difference is the ® symbol, which was after the name of the cult in 1999, but not now.

I Googled what’s up with their trademark registration. Just recently, in 2020, the company “The Evolutionary Level Above Human Foundation” registered (or renewed) rights to this trademark. The category is indeed listed as Lace, Ribbons, Embroidery, Fancy Goods, but the name of the company leaves no doubt that they are thinking about aliens.

I Googled some more. Turns out, this foundation, The Evolutionary Level Above Human (TELAH), acts as the “guardian of the legacy of the group ‘Heaven’s Gate'”, and has sued Stephen Havel and other defendants for copyright and trademark infringements, accusing them of illegally distributing archival materials and selling themed merchandise. The last update shows the parties are obligated to hold a meeting by the end of March 2024 to try to negotiate confidentiality and authentication of evidence without further judicial intervention.

Specifically, the foundation consists of real people from Arizona, Mark and Sara King, and the organization is registered as a corporation. They respond to emails and send out books and cassettes if you transfer them money.

Other former members are trying to challenge their “right” to use cult materials, such as recordings on tapes in court.

In short, some kind of life goes on there.

That is, the next time you think of Flat Earthers as “some pranksters pretending to be weirdos”, remember these folks, maintaining their website and selling books by their “prophets”.

Decoding Leather Products: From Genuine to Synthetic | February 23 2026, 18:11

Today I learned how the hierarchy of leather products is actually structured. Everyone knows that faux leather is completely synthetic; it’s a layer of polymer on a fabric base. There is also cheap leather, often labeled as Genuine Leather, which technically remains an animal-derived product. It turns out to be the lower, looser layer of the hide, which on its own lacks strength or aesthetics, so it’s turned into a sort of sandwich, encased in a thick layer of plastic (polyurethane) with embossing. Essentially, cheap leather is split or compressed leather scraps (Bonded leather or bi-cast/tri-cast), glued together with plastic. It’s essentially akin to plywood or particle board.

How such leather is produced: 1) Leather scraps and waste are taken 2) they are shredded into small fibers 3) mixed with a binder – polyurethane or latex – resulting in a mass similar to pulp 4) this mixture is evenly distributed on a substrate, which typically serves as fabric or paper material 5) a roller or plate with a pattern mimicking natural leather is then pressed onto the surface of the mixture, creating a texture reminiscent of real leather. 6) After drying, a protective coating is applied to enhance the strength, wear resistance, and appearance of the material.

Expensive leather is called Aniline or Full Grain. Essentially, it is made from the top part of the hide (which is exposed to air on the animal). It is dyed with transparent dyes, and contains no plastic. Nubuck or suede is part of the hide which, excuse me, comes in contact with the flesh.

Many also judge the quality of leather by its smell, thinking that a distinctive aroma is the main sign of authenticity and high class. This is easily mistaken. The scent we associate with expensive leather is often the result of chemists’ work. Manufacturers of cheap bonded leather products use special fragrance sprays that mimic the smell of expensive tanning. Real high-quality leather, such as vegetable-tanned leather, smells more like wood, oak bark, or mimosa, because these substances are used in its processing.

Another professional secret concerns the edges of the product. If you see that the edge of a bag or belt is neatly filled with a thick layer of “rubber” or paint so that the structure of the layers is not visible, this is often not done for design’s sake. Such a technique helps to conceal that very plastic sandwich which makes up the material. Craftsmen working with truly high-quality Full Grain leather often leave the cuts open or just slightly polish them with wax, because they have nothing to hide — the fiber structure of such leather is equally dense throughout its thickness.

Understanding Fever: A Physiological Defense Mechanism | February 17 2026, 09:00

I’ve only slightly (hopefully) gotten sick here and realized during the process that many people around me take pills for a minor onset of fever, considering it normal.

I’m sharing my understanding of the process, which should be very close to scientific. When an infection penetrates the body, foreign bacteria or viruses enter the bloodstream, which the immune system attacks. During the attack, signaling molecules are produced, the purpose of which is to declare a general alert throughout the body. Specifically, cytokines are produced, which also inform the brain (hypothalamus) that action is needed. Pyrogens (fever-inducing agents) include cytokines and external pathogens. The hypothalamus activates a fever through the synthesis of prostaglandins. Why: at a temperature of 38.5°C, the immune system becomes more active, antibodies are produced in larger amounts, microbial reproduction slows down, and some viruses do not reproduce.

If you consume, for example, Ibuprofen, it blocks the enzyme (COX) that creates these prostaglandins. Meaning, the pyrogens are still in the blood, but the brain “can’t hear” them and doesn’t raise the temperature.

There are only two cases when you should reduce fever: if you truly feel awful, have a severe headache, vomiting, etc. Unnecessary stress does not help the body. And if the temperature exceeds 39°C. At that point, the harm from high temperature outweighs the benefits. Even then, there are so many “buts” that a doctor should make the decision. For example, if the heart is problematic, these are special cases.

Oh, here’s something else interesting. Why when the temperature is high you feel “cold” and want to cover up. In the hypothalamus itself, there’s something like a thermostat, normally set to 36.6°C. When pyrogens arrive, it raises the temperature through prostaglandins, but since it’s the brain, it immediately cranks up its own “normal temperature” in its thermostat to, say, 38.5°C. As a result, a body temperature of 37°C suddenly feels low, and it feels like “it’s cold around, need to cover up.” Covering up is passive thermal insulation, and generally, it helps to more quickly raise the temperature to the target level. Later, when the temperature reaches 38.5°C, the chills may disappear (unless the hypothalamus further raises its thermostat). And when the temperature plateaus, around 38.5°C, covering up is harmful.

When the temperature starts to drop back, the internal thermostat switches to 36.6°C, and to cool down faster, the body produces sweat. So, if you’re sweating, it’s a sign of recovery.

(Well, what else is there to do at four in the morning, when because of all this, I can’t sleep)