Dear Mr. President ( Read more... )

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Since I am neither a virologist nor an epidemiologist, people constantly ask me to explain various things about the Covid-19 pandemic. Recently the most puzzling thing for many has been the emergence of "new variants". So let me explain.( Read more... )

I happened to travel extensively in Azerbaijan and Armenia just before the first Karabakh War started and when it was beginning, and even happened to take part in one of the first battles. So I am a bit familiar with the story. Here it is, in short ( Read more... )

I'll copy this here from my FB page for convenience ( Read more... )

I keep running into people who call themselves naturalists but are still profoundly ignorant about the ongoing climate meltdown. Let me summarize the current situation so that in the future I can simply send them to this post ( Read more... )

I am reading the diary of A. J. Mounteney Jephson from Stanley's 1887-9 Emin Pasha relief expedition (if you don't know this fascinating story, look it up). The expedition used waterproof tents; each housed up to ten people and could be easily carried by one porter. At the end of the grueling 3-year ordeal, the tents were stored in London. In 1953 ( Read more... )

I am reading a book about animal languages by Zhanna Reznikova. She did some very clever experiments with red wood ants where scouts had to find food in a bifurcating labyrinth, return to the nest, and tell their personal teams of foragers what sequence of turns to use to get straight to the food. So the scout had to transmit (through antennal ( Read more... )

And yet more field notes / И еще полевые заметки:

( ”English” )

More field notes from Alaska / еще путевые заметки с Аляски.

( ”English” )