Oh, what a wonderful artist we have today! Evgeniy Monahov (1974). Observing his “Ophelia” (the first in the series, evidently inspired by John Everett Millais), an intriguing notion struck me — how captivating it would be to reimagine any renowned painting from a slightly altered perspective while preserving its distinctiveness? I have yet to encounter such an approach. What captivates me about Evgeniy’s artworks is their profound significance; they invariably portray a brilliantly orchestrated scene, crowned by his exceptional technique. Indeed, as the saying goes, when a portrait is more than merely a portrait.
Don’t forget, that related posts can be found under the tag #artrauflikes, and on beinginamerica.com, specifically in the “Art Rauf Likes” section, where all 64 entries are accessible (to date), unlike Facebook, which tends to overlook (or neglect) nearly half of them.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to the Ukrainian artist Mykola Pymonenko (1862-1912). Look at his works — it’s like a time machine taking us back 100+ years.
I remind you that similar posts are grouped under the tag #artrauflikes, and on beinginamerica.com in the “Art Rauf Likes” section, you can find all 64 (currently) of them (unlike Facebook, which forgets (ignores) almost half).
“In one interview, Sam Altman mentioned that what impressed him the most about ChatGPT-4o was the ability to turn on the audio mode in the background and intermittently ask it questions.”
Improvisation by Ellen Alaverdyan from Las Vegas on bass guitar. Everything on her channel is amazing. It’s said that she started playing in April 2020, during the lockdown (hard to believe).
The most useful purchase for Yuki is the Pet Grooming Vacuum. We’ve been using it for six months now. I don’t know why a dog needs to grow its fur out for the summer… It seems that since this thing is needed all year round, the spent $80 pays off quite quickly. You can also use a brush, but then it’s quite difficult to clean the house from the flying fluff. Therefore, brush only on the balcony. And with this thing, you can use it inside as well
Andrew Wyeth is one of the most beloved and, at the same time, one of the most underrated American artists of the 20th century. All his paintings exude an atmosphere of loneliness, longing, and melancholy. Essentially, he would sit on his porch or inside his house and paint everything around him.
In “Christina’s World,” a painting where a girl is semi-lying in a field, this girl is Wyeth’s neighbor Anna Christina Olson, partially paralyzed by CMT disease. Despite her physical limitations, Christina led an active life on the farm, helping with chores and taking care of the house. The painting symbolizes human resilience and the pursuit of goals despite difficulties.
Andrew Wyeth’s father, Newell Convers (N. C.) Wyeth, was a renowned illustrator and artist. The family was generally quite creative (his father, grandfather, and two aunts were artists), making it difficult for Andrew to avoid the fate of becoming an artist himself. 🙂 He was taught art by his father from an early age, and they were very close. When Wyeth was 28, his father died under the wheels of a train, and since then, the melancholy in Wyeth’s paintings has only increased.
His father made him draw from plaster casts and Rimmer’s Anatomy, teaching him to study the model, then turn his back on it and draw from memory. It’s actually a very interesting approach. I always thought that foreign languages should be learned in the same way. Read or heard a text—turned your back on it and recited it. A lot of information goes in one ear and out the other, and what enters through the eyes often goes somewhere deep and gets buried. Separating the important from the unimportant and being able to reproduce knowledge is a very important skill. This is partly why I write a lot on Facebook and the Hybrismart blog, because it’s a way to remember and understand things better.
I remind you that similar posts are grouped under the tag #artrauflikes, and on beinginamerica.com in the “Art Rauf Likes” section, there are all 63 (currently) of them (unlike Facebook, which forgets (ignores) almost half).
Artist Inna Tsukakhina hails from Russia. Many of her artworks align with the “mainstream,” yet a few stand out as particularly intriguing. Her artistic expression largely embodies a “gentle romance” reminiscent of watercolor techniques, although she utilizes oil paints.
Let me remind you that similar posts are collected under the tag #artrauflikes. Moreover, on beinginamerica.com within the “Art Rauf Likes” section, you can explore all 62 entries (current count), as opposed to Facebook, which tends to overlook or omit nearly half of them.
Seems like I have a lot of posts today, sorry about that. Nice format. In Russian. Surdin (an astronomer) and Semikhatov (a physicist) are quizzing the guest (in this case, Severinov) on his topic. Since both are educated, the level of questioning is generally pretty good (with rare exceptions).
The first two-thirds are filled with a lot of interesting stuff from Severinov (mostly high school level, but still). In the last third, Semikhatov jumps in with quantum theory and totally outshines Severinov.
Listening to the rest of it now. They’re discussing Student’s t-test – it’s about statistical significance. Just a brief mention, no big deal. I decide to check out some details on Wikipedia and find something amusing:
“…This test was developed by William Gosset to assess the quality of beer at the Guinness company. Due to confidentiality obligations (the Guinness management considered the use of statistical methods a trade secret), Gosset’s article was published in 1908 in the journal ‘Biometrika’ under the pseudonym ‘Student’.“
We have an international airport nearby, and planes are almost always in the sky (plus, even closer by, a small airfield where small private planes are constantly taking off and landing). And I’ve noticed something interesting several times—a plane virtually hanging in the air. Just driving along, you look up—at some point in the sky, there’s a plane. Look up a few seconds later, and it’s exactly in the same spot!
Yes, it’s almost always flying almost directly towards me, so the angular velocity is not noticeable. But again, there are many planes flying, and I have something to compare it with. Encountered it again today, but I went the extra mile and checked on flightradar to see what this four-engine aircraft was.
I investigated. It was an Airbus A380—the largest airliner in the world. It’s just big, the wings are huge, and with a strong headwind, and specifically the one I saw was decelerating to 155 km/h according to flightradar24 while approaching for landing. But the following B777 also landed at a similar speed, give or take. The difference is, the B777 is significantly smaller than the A380 (30% shorter in fuselage height and nearly 20% in wingspan), and the same visual angular size for A380 appears at a higher altitude, where angular velocity is lower. Meaning, I saw the A380 when it was further away than I am used to seeing Boeings, and therefore its speed seemed very slow.
Perhaps, in addition to this, there might be a headwind. It can really drastically reduce the plane’s speed relative to the ground. Here I’m “out of my depth” and don’t know what pilots do when landing against the wind.
While I was figuring this out, I read that apparently, the A380 engages its thrust reversers (which direct the engine’s thrust forward) quite late, when the speed drops to 80 km/h. Although a fully loaded Airbus A380 weighs 573 tons, its braking system does not rely heavily on reversers. They are not a mandatory element for airliners, and on the A380, they are installed only on the two inner engines.
Although reversers help slow down the A380, their contribution to braking is not as significant as on most airliners, including the Boeing 747, where thrust reversers do significantly reduce the braking distance compared to brakes and spoilers.
It turns out, A380’s main braking effort is performed by huge Honeywell composite brakes on 16 of the 20 main landing gear wheels. The brakes on the A380 are equipped with a car-like anti-lock braking system. The aerodynamic braking, thanks to 16 large spoilers on the wings, which create drag and reduce lift, also plays an important role. Reducing lift improves mechanical braking, increasing pressure on the wheels.
The A380 slows down from cruising speed of 500 knots (926 km/h) to a complete stop within a few minutes thanks to the overall design of the plane. The descent begins at cruising altitude at about 0.85 Mach (1235 km/h). Below 10,000 feet, the speed decreases to 250 knots (463 km/h), and on the approach glide, the plane moves at 180 knots (333 km/h). The A380 crosses the landing threshold at 140 knots (259 km/h) and touches down at 130 knots (240 km/h).
By the way, here’s how beautifully the landing gear of the A380 extends:
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 