№ 5 (2023)

Thanks to the American essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the title “black swans” now describes unexpected, rare, and often destructive events and phenomena. The author attributed this beautiful image to extreme events that radically change the situation. It is often pointed out that the problem of “black swans” may be of key importance for the modern, extremely volatile, and potentially catastrophic world. “Black swans” appear suddenly, and it would be good to know at least some patterns of their appearance and frequency. It is known that the vast majority of various types of disasters, both of natural and man-made origin, is described by the power law of distribution, fi rst identifi ed for earthquakes (the Gutenberg—Richter earthquake recurrence law). More than that, the earthquake events are not only the very fi rst described by this law, but, perhaps, are the most famous, most provided with statistical data, and therefore the most studied. However, even for earthquakes, the nature of their statistics remains debatable. The article discusses the issues of the recurrence of strong earthquakes, the reduction of the caused losses, and earthquake insurance.

The studies on the fi sh farming techniques, carried out in the Ural Cossack community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, played a major role in the development of Russian ichthyology.

Two intellectual traditions, the Indian and the Greek, are used as a basis to discuss the emergence of science in the so-called “axial time” (800–200 BCE) and the role of poetry in the formation of scientifi c thought. At that time, spiritual culture existed as an oral tradition, and the spoken word played a leading role. For several centuries, poets organized and preserved the sacred texts of the Rigveda. They created special ways of pronunciation in order to not distort the sound of hymns, wrote down comments concerning unclear phrases and words, composed dictionaries, and formulated rules of grammar. All these activities resulted in the development of the Vedangas: religious and scientifi c texts, representing, in particular, such disciplines as phonetics, etymology, grammar, and astronomy. To some extent, a similar process can be seen in the Greek tradition. Poets formed a creative attitude to tests and created neologisms, which was an example and a prerequisite for the creation of a number of concepts by philosophers. They also deepened the content of a number of key concepts, such as “measure”, “justice”, etc., began to criticize the mythological tradition, releasing ideas from rigid authorities, and discovered reasoning in the form of proportions. Thus, poetry played a crucial role in the transition from mythological to rational thinking.

Mass media often ask climate scientists for clarifi cations on the causes of extreme weather events, as well as for commentary on publications in leading international journals or on climate-related anniversary events. The journalists’ attempts to convey scientifi c opinion on a particular burning issue (and weather and climate are certainly of those) are very respectable. However, both journalists and their programs often turn out to be of very diff erent quality.