Trump Books in Russian Bookstore

Trump sells lots of books in Russia both he himself and for other hacks... umm writers.

Here are some of the titles: Trump Never Gives Up, Trump: A Nightmare of the Neocons or the Fine Game of the Elites, Donald Trump and Thirst for Success, Golden Showers Rules of Donald Trump.

The first smartwatch 1985

Long before the Apple watch there was Seiko's 1985 smartwatch.

Playboy Back to Normal

Playboy Back to Normal

Our March/April 2017 cover #NakedIsNormal https://t.co/FhCkcmnV0S pic.twitter.com/WSxMElDa94

— Playboy (@Playboy) 13 February 2017

Like so from Mafia 3.

Vostok 5 ChM Ship Clock Winding

3D TV is Gone

Per this BBC website article, 3D TV is no more - all major manufacturers have now stopped making 3D television sets.

This week we learned that both LG and Sony have now stopped making 3D-enabled televisions. The firms follow Samsung - the world’s biggest TV maker - who confirmed the move last year. It means there are currently no major manufacturers making 3DTVs.

Luckily my general lack of funds kept me from buying one so I happily missed this particular technological dead-end.

ChN-01 Electronic Wristwatch

A ChN-01 -04 series of electronic watches, and a ChN-01 in more detail.

The ChN-0x series was the last and most advanced series of old-school electronic watches made first in the USSR and then in the Republic of Belarus.

Let's watch the video (in Russian).

As the video in Russian here is a re-cap.

First, my entire ChN-01 - 04 collection, including ChN-01 x 2, ChN-02, ChN-03 and ChN-04.

Then the two ChN-01 more specifically.

This watch model has many functions:

• time, date, automatic calendar up to 2069 (or even 2099)
• second time
• 24/12 mode
• automatic summer/winter time correction function which can be turned off
• Russian/English
• alarm
• stopwatch
• 3 timers
• automatic adjustment correction
• alarm melody x 5

Some of the functions are shown specifically the alarm melodies.


HoroLex: Электронные часы ЧН-01 - небольшой обзор: Электронные часы серии ЧН-01 - ЧН-04 и более подробно о модели ЧН-01 в этом видео.

Ripituc: GALLERY Melania Trump

Ripituc: GALLERY Melania Trump: Some pictures of Donald Trump's third wife, the Slovenian Melania Trump (born Melania Knauss, in Yugoslav Slovenia), motivated by the pu...

Kinetic Diect Drive function

Spring Drive function

Molnija 3602 Movement Pictures

Here is a gallery of Molnija 3602 movement pictures from my collection.

The movement is in one of my Molnija (read: MOL-nee-yah) pocket watches, I forget which.

This is what I call a proper watch movement! It's 36 mm in diameter.

Truth to tell, this is the cal. 3602 movement in its 2000s version -- yellow plates (brass?), no central stone, other simplifications, rough machining and no decoration while early Molnija movements were beautifully decorated.  

As such it is much despised by watch collectors here in Russia who don't have much respect for the Molnija movements of this particular late vintage believing them somehow to be inferior to Molnija movements of almost every other period but, whether true or not, I don't share their snobbery.

The movement has yellow (brass?) plates -- such movements were made in the 2000s, but with markings. There's some number, it is some kind of movement identification number but not a serial number, RU for Russia, the caliber designation - 3602 and a Molnija watch factory logo next to it. 

Nice gold hues.
 

-23C 2008 Ford Focus Cold Start

Very cold currently in Moscow -20C to -30 C.

And apparently it's cold in the whole of Europe too.

Anyway, here are my experiences.

Electronika 77(A) х 3

Three Electronika 77A watches.

Two of them are Electronika 77A (with the "A") and are more recent, one chrome plated, the other yellow to resemble "gold-plating".

And the third one is an Electronika 77 (without the "A") and is older and rarer and was already mentioned in this entry on the blog.

 

Batteries are now replaced in all three, you can see the process in the latter half of the video.

Since the video is in Russian, here is a recap in English.

The three watches are Electronika 77s being clones of the 1970-80s Hong Kong Kessel/Montana watches, the latter still existing today in a cheap China version.

They show time, date, day of the week, have an alarm and a timer and also play seven tone melodies, I think, some American classics from the late 19th century (Yankee Doodle is there apparently).

Then I show how I replaced the batteries and set the time.

Swatch Commercial

Car and Chrono

Car and chrono.

Here are more pictures of my Okean 3133 Final Edition chronograph, such as they are.

It's color matched to Ford's blue oval.

The main entry on this watch is here My Okean 3133 Final Edition and there is a story there.

Love mechanical chronos, and when I got into watches some time ago I decided I would build a collection specifically of affordable chronos... but due to lack of funds have got only three so far, with there being no new addition since 2013... but am still hopeful.

I said "affordable" mechanical chronos and the two prime examples are the Poljot 3133 and China's ST19** series. 

Unfortunately, Poljot is out of production already but still can be found.

Also note the stopwatch is on - the red central hand is moving.

My Watches and Clocks Playlist

My Faulty Sony ICF-SW11

Seeing as I am also into shortwave (mainly) radios, here is another radio from my battery of consumer world radios.

Bought in 2007.

It is a portable analog radio (with 9SW, MW, LW and FM bands) so you shouldn't expect much from it in terms of functionality, also the analog tuning dial has its very obvious limitations, like being unable to determine exactly the frequency you are tuned in to or being unable to tune precisely to a given frequency.

That said, I liked its shortwave reception when I used it a bit soon after I bought it, and thought that it was pretty good on shortwave, all things considered.

However it then developed a major problem with the tuning dial - the pointer first refused to move - then recently regained that ability but the range is shifted upwards somewhat but it doesn't seem to affect ability to tune itself. Described in below video in Russian.

Also it seems now that its reception ability has deteriorated a little - 9 years after it was bought.

Sony still has a couple other much more advance shortwave radios but I am not sure if they still make them or just sell out old stock.

But this radio is still made by Sony and the serial numbers are over 2,000,000 now.

Delirium 168

Some trance on sunday

Electronika 53V x 2

Some Thoughts on Mafia III (2016)

Seeing as occasional gaming is also my hobby, here is my short review of Mafia III 2016 -- just some points that are most salient.

I completed the game about a week ago, the proof of which is in this playlist.

There were some good moments.

The city itself looks nice though not in all weather. Sunny days are generally great.

Sometimes the sunlight sort of floods the inside of buildings and saps the color. Sometimes it is nice at night, sometimes it is too dark.

The story is pretty good, however the confusion of many side- or optional missions is sometimes too much. 

If you want non-linear, you go play GTA series.

But sometimes you want a clear-cut linear story without much distraction. Mafia I and II provided such stories. Mafia III deviates here somewhat though not on the scale of a typically messy GTA game.

If I were to rate the game, it would definitely be behind the first 2 installments but overall not as bad as some claim.

It also is very buggy.

Also the controversial topic of racism is covered boldly but very unrealistically and with a lot of injustice to all sides, I think; also the treatment is cheap and over-the-top. For example, I am not buying the idea of there being "Dixie mafias" at the time controlling dr ug and pros tituion rackets.

Story-wise, the most surprising thing is (spoiler)....

Two Telemeter Scales on My Chronos

Not two different scales, but rather two differently graduated Telemeters scales on a couple of my mechanical chronos.

Here is one - the 2011 Океан Final Edition

The telemeter scale is in red on the outside of the hour marks and it is apparently graduated in nautical miles having about 10 units in total, that is, measuring the distance up to 10 nautical miles or thereabout.

And here is the other - my 2013 Strela 3133 45 mm by Volmax.

Here the scale is in kilometers and has about 19 units.

Basically the telemeter is a device used to measure distances to remote objects.

Per wikipedia,

...the telemeter chronograph is a feature of a wristwatch, i.e. a complication (and the chronograph is itself a complication) which allows the user to approximately measure the distance to an event that can be both seen and heard (e.g. a lightning bolt or a torpedo strike) using the speed of sound. The user starts the chronograph (stopwatch) at the instant the event is seen, and stops timing at the instant the event is heard. The seconds hand will point to the distance measured on a scale, usually around the edge of the face. The scale can be defined in any unit of distance, but miles or kilometers are most practical and commonplace.

It is important to keep in mind different telemeter scales graduation to avoid simple errors.