Author Archives: Vladimir Dinets

1. The habit of using “like” in almost every sentence as a kind of punctuation mark originated in Devonshire dialect. It was imported to American English in the 17th century and locally persisted in rural New England but went virtually extinct in Devonshire. In the late 20th century, it suddenly began to spread like wildfireContinue reading “Adventures of the English language”

This morning I had my best field trip in New Jersey so far, and I don’t think I’ll ever have a better one. I went to High Point State Park for some early morning skiing. Turned out there wasn’t enough snow to ski through the forest, so I decided to use a frozen lake. ItContinue reading “Wild New Jersey”

25 absolutely amazing places in USA that are barely known to outsiders (in no particular order). I’ve been to all of them except the last two. 1. Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada. 2. Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. 3. Wahweap Hoodoos in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. 4. Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico. 5. White Pocket,Continue reading “Hidden Wonders”

An Azeri airliner tried to land in Grozny (in Russian-occupied Chechnya), was mistaken for a Ukrainian drone, shot and damaged (but, notably, not shot down despite being the easiest target possible), and told to fly to Kazakhstan (a thousand km away) where it crash-landed killing half the passengers. Apparently, once Russians realized they had shotContinue reading “Moscow today”

Why did more than half of US population choose to press the self-destruct button? I haven’t seen a reasonable explanation anywhere. People point to high housing prices or other economic issues, to supposed mistakes of Democrats, to Biden’s senility. But all these explanations are demonstrably wrong. The economy was the best since the 1950s, andContinue reading “My commentary on the US elections”

We spent a few days in Calanques National Park just outside Marseilles. A few travel notes: 0. Orly Airport is much more efficient than De Gaulle. You only have to walk ~5 miles with your suitcase, backpacks, child car seat, and tired totally awesome (my daughter’s edit) kids, not 10+. But in both airports, mostContinue reading “Provence”

I am reading How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England by Ruth Goodman. Turns out, the pathetic scarcity of insulting words in modern English is a recent phenomenon. There used to be a huge variety! One I particularly regret being lost is “canting knave”, meaning a person who loudly and arrogantly forces on everyone hisContinue reading “Elizabethan English”

I’m raising two human children. Being a zoologist, I am constantly impressed by their total lack of anti-predator defenses. Or, to phrase it less scientifically, by them being a perfect predator bait. Human children are small, soft, slow, clueless, and extremely noisy. Not just noisy, but impossible to keep quiet (we seem to be theContinue reading “On human children”

I’m freaking tired of writing to Biden, but someone has to. Dear Mr. President,As your long-time supporter, I am gravely worried about your legacy. One issue is threatening to undermine all your hard work: your policy towards Russia. I grew up in Russia before moving to the US in 1997. Russia is a society builtContinue reading “Another letter to Biden”

We just spent 12 days in Costa Rica, divided between Guanacaste coast and Monteverde, with short side trips to Rincon de la Vieja, Palo Verde and Carara National Parks. It was my fourth trip to the country since 1995. During that time, Costa Rica’s forest cover increased from 35% to 52% (it was 75% aContinue reading “Costa Rica”