Month: November 2020

So, it turns out:

• aircraft, hovercraft, spacecraft, and other “-craft” vehicles: «There are two aircraft prepared for landing»

• bison: «The bison were grazing in the distance.»

• cod: «The cod are known to migrate in large numbers»

• deer: «Deer are easy prey for wolves.»

• fish: «Three fish swim in the fish tank.»

• moose: «Moose actually belong to the deer family.»

• offspring: «The fox gave birth to five offspring.»

• pike: «The pike are big freshwater predatory fish.»

• salmon: «Salmon are often seen jumping over dangerous waterfalls.»

• sheep: «One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…»

• shrimp: «Shrimp are among the most commonly eaten animals.»

• swine: «Swine are reared extensively in Europe.»

• trout: «The trout are fish related to the salmon.»

Criteria is a plural noun. The standard singular form is a criterion.

Media is a plural noun. The standard singular form is a medium.

Bacteria is a plural noun. The standard singular form is a bacterium.

US: a ton = 2000 pounds = 907 kg

UK: a ton = 2240 pounds = 1016 kg but not officially used since 1985

so our tonne is “a tonne” = 1000 kg

keep this in mind when you threaten to dump a tonne of crap on the developers

#English

I recently participated in a hackathon titled “Voice Interface for SAP Commerce Cloud”. We implemented full voice control of the website – from product selection to completing the entire checkout process. We are expecting the results tomorrow.

“Perceptive Oleg” – is apt

All of Washington is packed with plywood. Almost all glass display windows, almost without exception. Waiting

I wonder, did they expect a surge in plywood sales in November?

Interestingly, isn’t this some kind of provocation? Like, come over, we’ve set up some drawing boards for you?

Doing homework with Masha. A question on French – what do you call a daughter’s husband? The correct answer is beau-fils – mari de la fille, that is, the daughter’s husband. Everything’s fine.

But if you translate the other options, it starts to get confusing.

If you use the French-Russian dictionary from Yandex, the first option is correct. Translation into Russian: шурин, зять. Зять fits, but шурин – isn’t that the wife’s brother? Why are they grouped together?

Translating into English – frère de l’épouse ou de l’époux – the spouse’s brother or the spouse’s brother, translation into English — brother-in-law. Also: brother-in-law: the husband of one’s sister or the brother of one’s husband or wife. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/french-english/beau-frere

Merriam-Webster provides options for brother-in-law: 1) the brother of one’s spouse 2) the husband of one’s sibling 3) the husband of one’s spouse’s sibling

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brother-in-law

The French interpret beau-frere strictly as 1) Frère du conjoint – spouse’s brother 2) Mari d’une soeur ou d’une belle-soeur – husband of a sister or sister of a spouse.

https://www.linternaute.fr/dictionnaire/fr/definition/beau-frere/

https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/beau-frere

What a mess?

Interesting work from MIT. They claim that it’s highly possible to determine COVID/non-COVID by the sound of a cough. They write that the accuracy of detection is 98.5%, and it’s 100% among the sample of asymptomatic (but positive) individuals. They trained an AI with several thousand recordings; you can submit your own cough through their little form. The diagnostic service or app is not yet available for phones. An interesting topic, might significantly change the global statistics and early diagnosis scene.

https://news.mit.edu/2020/covid-19-cough-cellphone-detection-1029

Almost everything in physics is based on the speed of light, as a fundamental constant, on the fact that it is the same in all directions. However, in reality, this is not known, it is an assumption (which seems impossible to either confirm or refute). This assumption might imply that the stars we see in the sky (which, upon beautiful reflection, may actually no longer exist) could be burning right at this moment.

It is useful to reassess that although it’s relatively simple to know the rules, it is much more difficult and “expensive” to understand the exceptions, priorities, and boundaries of the applicability of these rules.

Here is a link to the translation into Russian, the original is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNOF0KEoFmU

I was amused by the vigesimal system in French until I started wondering about our system

«

— Ok, what’s 20?

— twenty

— 20 is twenty, 30 is thirty, 40 is fourty

— No, forty

— What’s with forty? Why?

— I myself dunno, just “forty”

— Ok, next, 50 is fifty

— No, starting from five we add “dy” at the end, fifty

— Strange, but ok, 60 is sixty, 70 is seventy, 80 is eighty, 90 is ninety

— No, ninety

— What’s with? Why is there some sort of “hundred” in there?

— And hundred is 100

— Hold on, ninetY comes before a hundred? How is that even? 100 is a hundred, what’s 200?

— two hundred

— two transformed into two and “hundred” was added, well ok, this is Russian, three doesn’t turn into some sort of “three”? 300 is three hundred

— No, three hundred

— Damn you, 300 is three hundred, 400 is four hundred, 500 is five hundred

— No, five hundred

— Go to… forty!

©JuiceRU