Repairing fluorescent tubes

Fluorescent lamps are becoming less and less fashionable these days, as LEDs are pushing them out—but they’re really not that bad. The technology improved a lot between the 1970s and 1990s: the unpleasant light of old fluorescent tubes is a thing of the past. Flickering and color distortion have been reduced so effectively that in … Read more

The Art of Seeing Air: Exploring Schlieren Photography

With Schlieren photography, even a person’s breath can be captured. It is often used to illustrate various flows, shockwaves, bullets, flames, and fire propagation. NASA has even developed a version of the method that allows supersonic aircraft to be photographed in flight. Most people have probably seen such images before — in recent years, the … Read more

Robert Repino: Mort(e)

Multiverzum kiadó, 2023328 oldal, 5990 Ft Morte annyit tesz: halál. Úgy, hogy Mort, lehetne egy bújós házi cica is, vagy a Madagaszkár-filmek idétlen egérmakija. Robert Repino regényében Mort(e) egy meglehetősen nagy macska, aki nem akar messiás lenni, csak a barátját szeretné megtalálni egy tébolyult világban: egy kutyát. „A kutyának köszönhetően érezte magát normálisnak. Mert ő … Read more

Saving Solitary Bees: The Right Way to Create a Bee Hotel

In the spring of 2019, I wrote an article about the so-called “wasp garage,” prompted by the fact that these things started appearing in many supermarkets and pet stores. Lots of people bought them, put them out in their gardens—and nothing happened. NGOs and local governments also installed them in public spaces, and there are … Read more

ВСА-5К (VSZA-5K) Soviet battery charger

I inherited this device from my father—he brought it from the Soviet Union at some point. It was manufactured in 1974 and is a typical example of the simple yet extremely robust Soviet devices. It doesn’t contain any “smart” electronic circuits, so there’s nothing in it that could burn out or break. It’s simply built … Read more