Tag: science

Decoding Naval Terms: From “Eskadrenny Minonosets” to “Destroyer” | January 28 2026, 21:57

It turns out that a destroyer is an abbreviation of “squadron mine carrier” and that in English these ships are called destroyers.

Jet Trails as Weather Predictors: A Phenomenon of High Altitude Humidity | January 24 2026, 02:34

Walking with Yuki, I see across the sky a very distinct and narrow streak clearly (apparently, an airplane had passed by), and usually a contrail disappears quite quickly, but today it is unusually sharp and long.

I started to investigate and it turns out this is a reliable indicator of changing weather, specifically the arrival of snow or rain: as we are actually expecting a sudden knee-deep snowfall tomorrow. In short: the airplane trail acts as an indicator of humidity at high altitudes.

Here’s how it works:

For a contrail not to evaporate but to start “smearing”, the air at an altitude of 8–10 kilometers must be very humid (saturated with moisture). If the air is dry, the ice crystals from the engine quickly turn into invisible vapor (sublimate). If the air is moist, the crystals have nowhere to evaporate. Instead, they start attracting extra moisture from the surrounding environment and grow. High humidity at high altitudes is a sure sign of an approaching warm atmospheric front.

My Ambitious 2026 Plan: From Galapagos Travel to Academic Achievements and Creative Pursuits | January 20 2026, 04:44

My plan for 2026:

– Travel to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador for a week (summer)

– Finish and release a book on Information Retrieval (also summer, progressing slowly, first couple of chapters are already written. Already spent about 50-100 hours on this, the easy part)

– Release at least one scientific paper, probably on Data Mining (spring). Ideally, submit it somewhere to a journal (challenging). Already spent about 30 hours on this topic, a lot left to do.

– Make a step towards a PhD. Find professors, visit universities, understand the cost and assess my capabilities and resources.

– Continue studying fundamental mathematics and not die (linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, statistics, classical ML). In 2025, I spent about 200-400 hours on this topic.

– Continue studying Deep Learning and reach the “can teach” level. In 2025, I spent about 100-200 hours on this topic.

– Continue studying Data Mining/NLP.

– Update my book on RecSys, releasing version 2.0 with updates and corrections (autumn 2026)

– Make noticeable progress in painting and playing the piano. Specifically, learn Schubert’s serenade (Ständchen, D 889) completely and create at least one canvas that I wouldn’t be ashamed to give as a gift.

Unveiling Scientific Misnomers: A Cross-Cultural Exploration | January 14 2026, 04:46

Today I was surprised to learn that the Coriolis force is pronounced as CoriolIs force, not coriOlis force as we were taught in school. I started to investigate what else was wrong, and discovered something amazing.

It turns out what we called Gay-Lussac’s law is known as Charles’s Law in the rest of the world, and what we called Charles’s Law is known throughout the world as Gay-Lussac’s Law.

The Cartesian coordinate system here is Carthesian. Cartesius is just the Latinized name of René Descartes.

In our textbooks, the law of conservation of mass is called the Lomonosov-Lavoisier Law (what enters the chemical reaction = mass of the substances formed). In the rest of the world, it is exclusively the Law of Lavoisier (Lavoisier’s Law). Lomonosov got included here only because “whatever is taken from one body is added to another”.

Also, it turns out that if you have to explain Pythagoras’ theorem to someone in English, without a hint, it’s absolutely impossible to guess that it’s Pythagoras. Greek names are generally a mess. Thales here is pronounced as Teelis.

For some reason, in physics Roentgen is called RentgEnom, although it’s Röntgen with the emphasis on ö.

In Russia, a trapezoid is a quadrilateral with two sides parallel and two not. In the USA, our trapezoid is known as Trapezoid, and the word Trapezium here refers to a quadrilateral with no parallel sides at all. In the UK, it’s the opposite. Our trapezoid is Trapezium, and the “skewed” quadrilateral is Trapezoid.

Navigating the Future: Embracing Earth’s Magnetic Field as a GPS Alternative | January 10 2026, 17:41

I learned today that there is and is actively used a technology for navigation using the Earth’s magnetic field. It is used as a replacement or an extension of GPS.

For example, there is the Scandinavian ferry Express 5 of Bornholmslinjen, which insures against GPS problems (which do happen) by using MagNav navigation. Unlike GPS, the Earth’s magnetic field cannot be jammed or spoofed—it simply exists. The ferry follows the same route, and generally, navigation could even be achieved through household fishing sonars.

But there are a few startups that use this technology for indoor navigation, where GPS signals cannot reach. It’s claimed that the navigation accuracy is within 1 meter. That’s more interesting.

GiPStech, Oriient, Mapsted.

The basis of this technology is a process called magnetic fingerprinting. Engineers or mapping robots walk through a building with a smartphone, recording unique distortions of the magnetic field at every point. These distortions are created by the steel frame of the building, rebar in the walls, and large electrical equipment. A database is formed where each coordinate (x, y, z) corresponds to its unique magnetic field vector (intensity, inclination, deviation).

The collected data is uploaded to the cloud platform of the provider company. There, they undergo noise cleaning and are “stitched” together with the digital floor plan. When a user walks through a shopping center, their smartphone reads data from the built-in magnetometer in real-time. Special software (SDK) compares the current readings with those stored in the database. For accuracy to be within 1–2 meters, the system relies not only on magnets. It uses sensor fusion—combining data from the magnetic field with inertial sensors (accelerometer counts steps, gyroscope determines turns) and sometimes Wi-Fi/Bluetooth signals for rough localization.

This technology is certainly being actively implemented for drones. The main technical difficulty there is dealing with their own interference and considering that the magnetic field changes, requiring constant map updates. Electrics, engines create strong magnetic fields, which “drown out” the natural background of the Earth. However, various filtering algorithms (including neural networks) are used, which in real-time “subtract” motor interference from the overall sensor readings. From what I understand, at high altitudes (kilometers), the magnetic field is more “smooth”, therefore the accuracy is lower (about 1–5 km). But if several drones fly together and exchange signals, overall they can provide very good accuracy each. Additionally, a group of drones can measure the gradient (rate of change) of the magnetic field in space, tying location not to absolute values, but to relative ones. Essentially, using a group of drones turns the navigation system from a set of individual receivers into a distributed phased array antenna, capable of filtering global interferences and working with much weaker useful signals. Considering that small drones capable of staying airborne for long periods can be released into the air by the hundreds (and cost pennies), this is a quite promising area for military.

There’s an interesting startup, Zerokey. They release QUANTUM RTLS 2.0. This device provides spatial accuracy to 1.5mm. It’s used in production, for example. Their video shows a “watch” on a worker’s hand that monitors the correctness of assembling something on a table. Here, the principle is ultrasonic, and it’s understandable that these “watches” are paired with stationary sensors and further multilateration.

Exploring Identity and Survival in “Avatar 3: A Journey of Relocation” | January 06 2026, 17:34

After watching Avatar 3, we decided to rewatch the first and second movies. Watched it like it was the first time, but here’s what I thought.

For the family, relocation was an urgent rescue from physical annihilation or forced participation in a war. Moving, they encountered the necessity to “learn to swim” in a new legal, linguistic, and social environment, starting from scratch and losing their former social weight. The feeling of “we are strangers here” is the central emotion. Severance of ties with friends and colleagues, only the “nuclear family” remains as the sole island of identity. Essentially, Jake’s decision to flee to save his children is the fundamental dilemma of any parent in a conflict zone: fight to the end on their own land or leave to preserve the life of the next generation.

Upon arrival, they hardly receive a visa, and permanent residency isn’t promised. But eventually, it becomes clear that it’s impossible to hide from a global conflict geographically. Sooner or later one has to participate in protecting their new “reef.”

Jake’s children and he himself have five fingers, whereas purebred Na’vi have four. Plus, the accent. This is a constant visual reminder of their origin. Even if you are fully integrated, there is always a detail that marks you as an outsider. Your children may become “one of them” faster, but they still carry the mark of “hybridity.”

By the way, in the third part, all the blues already speak English. The Na’vi language was completely displaced by them.

P. S. By the way, it’s interesting that Jake didn’t bring any of humanity’s achievements to the new culture of Pandora at all. I don’t know, the wheel, fire, medicine, some mechanical stuff. Nothing.

The Unintended Consequences of Misguided Incentives | January 04 2026, 13:30

About KPIs. In English, there’s a concept called perverse incentive, “a harmful stimulus.” It occurs when you try to quash evil, but the methods become the perfect fertilizer for it. There’s a saying, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” (Marilyn Strathern based on Goodhart’s Law).

A classic example is the “Cobra Effect.” In colonial India, the British decided to reduce the snake population and offered a reward for every head. The plan seemed as reliable as a Swiss watch until Indians began breeding cobras on farms for the “harvest.” When the authorities realized they were being duped and cancelled the payments, the farmers simply released the now-useless snakes into the wild. As a result, there were many more cobras than before the program started 🙂

In a similar way, the French in Hanoi battled rats by paying money for severed tails. The city became overrun with lively yet tailless rats: the Vietnamese cut off the “currency” and released the creatures to breed further, to not lose a stable income.

In the 19th century, archaeologists searching for dinosaur bones and ancient fossils paid locals for every piece found. As a result, resourceful diggers intentionally shattered whole, priceless skeletons into small pieces to earn more by submitting them separately. Science wept, but the KPI for “number of finds” soared. A similar tragedy occurred with the Dead Sea Scrolls: Bedouins cut the found scrolls into small pieces to sell each fragment separately.

In the USA, this malady struck infrastructure. When building the Transcontinental Railroad, the government paid Union Pacific subsidies for every mile laid. In Nebraska, engineers, in a single corrupt impulse, drew a huge loop—the Oxbow Route. The extra 9 miles of detour made no sense for logistics but brought the builders hundreds of thousands of dollars “out of thin air.”

But if the “loop” in Nebraska was just theft, then the mistakes of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara were a tragedy. An aficionado of numbers and mathematical models, he tried to manage the Vietnam War like a Ford assembly line.

When General Edward Lansdale timidly noted that McNamara’s formulas lacked the variable “the spirit and will of the Vietnamese people,” the secretary noted it in pencil in his notebook. And then erased it. He said that if something cannot be measured, it’s unimportant. The main metric became the body count. Officers onsite, eager to curry favor, began labeling everyone indiscriminately as “enemies,” painting an illusion of imminent victory in Washington, while the actual situation spiraled into the abyss.

In science, there’s a radical principle similar to Occam’s Razor— “Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword” (also known as “Alder’s Razor”). Its essence: if something cannot be tested by experiment (or measurement), it’s not even worthy of discussion.

It sounds reasonable for physics, but in life, it’s a direct path to what sociologist Daniel Yankelovich called the degradation of perception. He described this as a descent through four steps:

1. First, we measure only what is easy to measure.

2. Then we ignore what is difficult to measure or requires qualitative assessment.

3. The third step—we decide that what cannot be measured is not so important.

4. And the final step—we declare that what cannot be measured actually does not exist.

And at that moment, we become blind. We view the world through the keyhole of metrics, while in the room behind the door, cobras are bred, dinosaur bones are broken, and wars are lost.

Capuchins in Costa Rica: Monkey Antics and Natural Insecticides | January 03 2026, 20:55

In the photo — a white-shouldered capuchin. Took this pic in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica a week ago. At that moment, a troop of at least 40-50 monkeys stormed the beach: they were everywhere. Scrambling through bags, one started to pull out a towel but couldn’t manage it. They’ve already figured out how zippers work. Capuchins have rather scary sharp teeth, but it seems they don’t use them on people without reason.

While preparing this post, I decided to read up a bit about them. Turns out, they practice so-called “self-anointment” — they rub their fur with crushed ants or centipedes. The chemicals (like formic acid) released by these insects act as a potent insecticide, deterring parasites. Also, if a capuchin finds a lemon or wild onion, it will crush them into a pulp and thoroughly “perfume” itself with the juice.

Capuchins have very complex social bonds, which they maintain in very specific ways. They have “trust testing” rituals that might seem odd to a human. Two monkeys can sit and alternately stick their fingers deep under each other’s eyelids. This is the supreme form of trust — “I allow you to hurt me because I trust you.” Also, they can insert their fingers into each other’s nostrils and sit like that for a long time, entering a sort of trance. I’ll put links in the comments.