Month: November 2023

One day, it will be possible to technologically extract 3D scenes from any video on YouTube where the object is shown from different sides, and then the boom of three-dimensional virtual worlds will begin. Everything that didn’t get caught on camera will be filled in by AI, trained essentially on similar videos. Technologically, we are already close – google 3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering

Yesterday’s performance of Masha and Yegor at the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge in Astana.

Maria Alieva / Yehor Barshak – Free Dance 2023 at the Denis Ten Cup 💙 2nd Place and the couple’s first medal at an international championship! Congratulations 🇬🇪 Maria Alieva / Yehor Barshak – Free Dance at Denis Ten Memorial 2023 💙 2nd Place. This is the couple’s first medal at an international event! Congratulations 🇬🇪https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzOQ8d0IYL1/?igshid=YjJvbnBwOG0wdGdw

I have a French UI set up, and GIMP is in French too. Looking here, inches are – pouces. Turns out in French an inch is a pouce, which translates as thumb, the phalanx of the thumb. In Spanish — pulgada. It’s purported to stem from Latin, with the same root as the French.

I decided to see what an inch is in Russian. Turns out, it’s also thumb, but from Dutch, from where the word thumb originates as well.

It is commonly believed that an inch was originally defined as the length of the phalanx of the thumb. According to other legends, an inch was defined as 1/36 of a yard, which in turn was set as the distance between the tip of the nose and the thumb of an outstretched arm of King Henry I of England (there’s also a version that the yard was the length of his sword).

The funny thing is, in the USA, where inches are most commonly used worldwide, a completely different word is used, inch, which comes from uncia, 1/12 part, in this case — of a foot. Meanwhile, the French word pouce resembles the Greek word pous, which means “foot,” but the etymology of the French clearly connects pouce with the Latin pollicis, meaning related to the thumb.

But that’s not all. Feet are different for everyone. Clearly, only one type is in use now, but there was once the Viennese inch (26.340278mm), the Spanish inch deemed to be 23.2166mm, and a whole bunch more. The Spanish inches were demarcated between continental Spain (23.2166mm) and Mexico (23.278mm). In Germany, nearly every region had its own inch. For instance, in Baden it was 3 cm, and in Saxony 2.36 cm. In Canadian Quebec, the French inch was used, but since 1985 (recently!) its value changed to 2.707005 cm. In the USA since 1958, the American inch has been equated with 2.54 cm.

The British inch, which stabilized in 1958 and became the basis for the internationally recognized standard, changed five times. Perhaps feet were growing. For example, in 1819 it was 1000000/393694 cm ≈ 2.5400438 cm, and then slightly reduced it was adjusted four more times in the sixth digit after the decimal point.

Also, interestingly, for the French inch, which is pouce, there is a formula – 75000/27706 mm, which gives approximately 2.706995.

Also interestingly, if you see pipes by GOST standards marked 1/2″, they would be 21.3mm in millimeters, and a 5″ pipe — 140mm. Attempting to calculate the conversion coefficient reveals that “pipe inches” vary for different pipe diameters and are moreover larger than the standard inch value of 25.4mm.

So, in the homeland of inches, an inch is defined as part of the foot, and outside the homeland of inches — as part of the hand 🙂

Our Masha and her partner Yegor brought back a silver from the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan—despite various unexpected hardships and unpleasant surprises right up until the day of the performance, which would surely derail any normal person – but they coped! Well done! This year it’s their third international start (Turkey and Budapest in the summer, also with good results). At the beginning of 2024, there will be the World Championship in Taipei (Taiwan), and before that, two more starts in Europe. For those who donated to Masha and those who might consider it — the collected 6000 dollars went exactly to the tickets for the guys to Turkey and Budapest, as well as for costumes. I don’t know how we are still managing, but Masha and Yegor are “working it” brilliantly 😉 we’ll keep going as long as we can. I hope the GoFundMe piggy bank will help us further (If you don’t mind donating, google Alieva GoFundMe or find the link in the comments). Details and pics – check Nadia’s post

Well done;) especially the last part

I wonder why banks like Chase limit password length to 32 characters. Some even limit it to 12. My best guess is that they use third-party banking software with limitations that date back to mainframe times. Is that so? Who knows?

Dad, help help

Something from a past life

Good morning

Yesterday’s Halloween in West Virginia