First, of course, we must have today’s Hili Dialogue:

A: Are you coming or going?
Hili: I’m in the hall and I wonder: does it lead outside or to the kitchen?

In Polish:

Ja: Wchodzisz czy wychodzisz?
Hili: Jestem w przedsionku i jeszcze się zastanawiam, czy on prowadzi na dwór czy do kuchni?

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I’m told that this video below has gone viral on the Internet, and it’s not surprising why: it shows a cat playing theremin.  Not only that, but the cat appears to have figured out that making movements in front of the instrument makes it play, something one wouldn’t think a cat could do easily. Well, watch it:

Wikipedia describes this arcane instrument for those of you who insist on knowing how it works (ten to one somebody will find an error here!). It was, by the way, invented by the Russian physicist Lev Sergeevich Termen in 1920, and you may have heard it in sci-fi or horror movies, as well as in Led Zeppelin music.

The instrument’s controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the relative position of the thereminist’s hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude(volume) with the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. . .

The theremin is unique among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna. While commonly called antennas, they are not used for receiving or broadcasting radio frequency, but act as plates in a capacitor.

The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal. The instrument’s pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency. The frequency of the other oscillator is controlled by the performer’s distance from the pitch control antenna. The performer’s hand acts as the grounded plate (the performer’s body being the connection to ground) of a variable capacitor in an L-C (inductance-capacitance) circuit, which is part of the oscillator and determines its frequency. (Although the capacitance between the performer and the instrument is on the order of picofarads or even hundreds of femtofarads, the circuit design gives a useful frequency shift.) The difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment allows the creation of a difference tone in the audio frequency range, resulting in audio signals that are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

To control volume, the performer’s other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. In this case, the capacitor detunes another oscillator; that detuning is processed to change the attenuation in the amplifier circuit. The distance between the performer’s hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitance, which regulates the theremin’s volume.

Here’s Lev Termin (Westernized as Leon Theremin) playing his own invention:

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From Flavorwire we hear about a strange road sign, one of “Ten bizarre literary landmarks.

This amazing road sign popped up near Moscow’s Patriarch Ponds sometime last year. It is, obviously, prohibiting Professor Woland, Koroviev, and Behemoth, the devilish trio from Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita from the area. The sign underneath warns, “Do not talk with strangers.”

Now to my shame I haven’t read The Master and Margarita, which seems to be much beloved, so all I know is that there’s a cat in it. But I’ll leave my readers the pleasure of enlightening me.

Be sure you look at the other ten “must visit” landmarks (I especially recommend #5 and #10).

h/t: Merilee,