izard

I'm writing the blog in English because I type twice as fast this way than in Russian, and 90% of my friends and friends read English any way. I answer comments in the same language they are posted.

I am trying not to post anything related to my employer, but if I do so, this expresses only my own views and does not represent official position of my employer.

When I post about some technical topic which seems non trivial and is related to my employer's product, don't expect it to be inside information. If I post about it, it means that this info is already public. Usually I do not post any personal information or anything that is related to my family.

All photos are mine, and I allow anyone to copy, change, do anything you please with them. I don't post "friends only".

Useful tags are: http://izard.livejournal.com/tag/software , http://izard.livejournal.com/tag/readlog , http://izard.livejournal.com/tag/idea , http://izard.livejournal.com/tag/deutschland and http://izard.livejournal.com/tag/trip_report

С тех пор, как я потерял примерно полмиллиона долларов из-за US federal covid vaccine mandate, я участвую в интернет срачах на эту тему (если они попадаются в моей ленте, специально для этого я никуда не бегаю).

За последнюю неделю заметил две закономерности.
1. В постах антиваксеров не трут и не скрывают никакие комментарии, а в постах сторонников вакцинации от ковида никогда не трут и не скрывают комментарии антиваксеров-идиотов (у которых 5g радиоволны дистанционно активизируют чипы в вакцине), чтобы показать, что антиваксеры - идиоты.
2. У сторонников вакцинации от ковида время остановилось в 2021 году - произошел импринтинг пропаганды того времени, и с тех пор почти ничего не может поколебать их непоколебимую решимость.

Было очень приятно пообщаться в комментах поста. Автор поста - профессиональный микробиолог с огромным опытом и просто приятный человек. Но мне было сложно угадать, когда уважаемый автор решит открыть мой комментарий, а когда решит его скрыть. Поэтому скопирую ветки со моими комментариями, которые оказались скрыты, в этот пост.

1. Мне _очень_ близка точка зрения topicfinisher, изложенная им в ветке комментариев:

topicfinisher >>"Миллионы людей — и тех, кто выдержал принуждение государства, и тех, кто сдался и подставил.. что требовали подставить — затаили изрядную злобу."

К сожалению, мой ответ на его последнюю реплику скрыт автором поста> Мне кажется, вы слишком оптимистично думаете о людях. Наоборот, в большинстве "те, кто сдался" — после этого в первых рядах сторонников принудительных экспериментальных медицинских процедур.
И к этому примыкает confirmation bias, который позволяет не видеть любые новые данные за 2022-2025 год, если произошел импринтинг госпропаганды 2021 года.
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Just returned from the Upper Bavaria Open Fencing Tournament - Jacob’s first competition under German rules and his return to competitive fencing after a long break. The format followed European youth fencing regulations, which meant a significant equipment change for Jacob: a shorter and stiffer foil compared to one he was using in U.S. tournaments.

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When I was a kid, I was spending every summer holiday in my grandmother’s village in Russia. The region sits on a cultural and religious border between Christian and Islam parts, with surviving traces of pre-Christian paganism. Some villages still had practicing shamans who preserved old rituals that were rarely talked about openly, but widely respected.

When I was 14 a drought had started in summer. Crops were at risk, and everyone was worried. A weather forecast finally offered some hope: light, scattered showers the following day. In response, several shamans from neighboring villages decided to “ask the gods” for rain.

I didn’t witness the ritual itself. But later that evening, I saw what they had left behind: stains of chicken blood at the base of a centuries-old oak tree, and bright cloths tied into its branches, swaying in the still, hot evening air.

The next day, it rained. Not much, maybe 20 minutes, but it was something. That’s when things got strange. I took my bicycle out and rode around the area.
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Just got back from vacation, where we drove through 7 counties: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Italy, Monaco and France. 11 hours one way not accounting for traffic jams, and it took us 12 and 16 hours in real life.

On our way back, I rented a Chalet in an Italian high mountain camping village called "Ёлки-Палки". It was great overall, but there was a small nuisance in one of the rooms: just before our arrival, a butterfly laid eggs on a top level of a bunk bed, they hatched during the night, so thousands of tiny caterpillars went on a quest to find some fresh leaves for dinner. Caterpillars started descending towards my lower bed using their threads. This is how nature works, but Julia was scared first.

One of the hosts spoke adequate English, but I did not expect him to know the word "caterpillar". So, I had to find words in Italian, and came up with "thousands of small caterpillars in the room" - "мияйя ди пикколи брукки нелла камера"

As always, flu got me over the weekend. So I could hardly sleep with 39C+ fever, and could not help but use the time to write a dark sci-fi short text, heavily influenced by Isaac Asimov and Pavel Ievlev.
Please see under a cut.
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Recent (end of 2024!!) social media discussion:

Someone: I won't do covid-19 boosters, they cause myocarditis. 3 upvotes, 8 downvotes.

Pro-vaxer: Here is a link to a study proving that covid-19 vaccine causes myocarditis, but covid-19 causes myocarditis more often.
15 upvotes, no downvotes.

Me: Could you please explain why you claim that this study proves that "covid-19 vaccine causes myocarditis, but covid-19 causes myocarditis more often", while the study does not explore frequency of myocarditis after covid-19 and after the vaccine at all? All the study does is demonstrating that post-vaccine myocarditis is less harmful than post-covid19 one.
6 downvotes, no upvotes.

Pro-vaxer: Oh, sometimes stupid antivaxers even read the linked studies! But they can't comprehend what they read, this is the problem. You see, even the abstract says: "Patients with post–COVID-19 mRNA vaccination myocarditis, contrary to those with post–COVID-19 myocarditis, show a lower frequency of cardiovascular complications than those with conventional myocarditis at 18 months."
You probably just read a part of the summary, which says "Post-vaccination myocarditis after vaccination with anti-COVID vaccines has a milder course and a lower risk of developing complications in the long term."
You think I made an error, but the error is all yours!
0 downvotes, 1 upvote

Me:
Let's think step by step:
1. From your first comment: "covid-19 vaccine causes myocarditis, but covid-19 causes myocarditis more often"
Let's assume P(A) the probability of getting myocarditis from the vaccine, and P(B) the probability of getting myocarditis from COVID.
So, your statement is P(A) < P(B).


2. From your second comment, the first quote from the abstract, which, in your opinion, I misunderstood. "Patients with post–COVID-19 mRNA vaccination myocarditis, contrary to those with post–COVID-19 myocarditis, show a lower frequency of cardiovascular complications than those with conventional myocarditis at 18 months." Please re-read it again. It says nothing at all about P(A) and P(B). All it says is that P(C|A) < P(C|B), where P(C) is the probability of cardiovascular complications 18 months after the diagnosis of myocarditis.
1 downvote, 0 upvotes, no responses so far.

The scary part is that Pro-vaxer is likely a doctor, based on his (or her) other comments. Confirmation bias maybe really tough.

Back in university, my friends and I had a trick when it came to exams in advanced physics and math courses: we’d try to sit exams with a postdoc or, better yet, a PhD student rather than a seasoned professor. Professors, with decades of experience, could gauge a student’s depth of understanding after just a few questions, accurately assigning grades. PhD students, however, lacked this refined intuition and often gave higher grades if you could converse confidently about basic concepts and demonstrate a good grasp of basic terminology. They usually tended to assume the best, consciously or subconsciously. The real test wasn’t the material itself, but skilfully steering the exam into a dialogue where you could shine.

So, why do I find myself reflecting on this old trick now? ( Read more... )

Интересно сравнить творчество трех самых плодовитых графоманов рунета. Если что, здесь я использую слово "графоман" отнюдь не как ругательное. Просто они очень любят писать, и публикуют в сети мегабайты и мегабайты своих художественных текстов.

Еще ограничу время. Да, в 90-е был "король графоманов" Петухов, а в 2000е - Иар Эльтеррус. Но здесь я напишу о 2010-х и 2020-х.
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