Tag: facebook

Exploring Frances Bell: A Modern Master of Detail and Color | February 06 2025, 20:59

(ENG) A truly cool English artist, Frances Bell. Her works are either portraits or scenes of people by water, yet all are executed with immense attention to detail without the actual details—directly following the principles of Sargent. Traditional techniques, simply people, alive, posing. Frances claims she works solely from life, no photographs involved. Observe how splendidly she conveys colors and shapes, “with a single stroke”.

Similar posts are grouped under the tag #artrauflikes, and at beinginamerica.com under the ‘Art Rauf Likes’ section, all 145 are available (unlike Facebook, which forgets (overlooks) almost half of them).

(ENG) A remarkable English artist, Frances Bell. Her canvases depict either portraits or people beside water, yet all are crafted with prodigious care for details—amazingly without actual details—a true adherence to Sargent’s tenets. She employs traditional techniques, capturing lively, posing individuals. Frances asserts that she operates purely from life, eschewing any use of photographs. Notice the masterful rendering of colors and forms, oftentimes achieved in “a single stroke”.

Posts of this kind are collected under the hashtag #artrauflikes, and at beinginamerica.com in the ‘Art Rauf Likes’ section, you can find all 145 of them, unlike Facebook, which neglects (disregards) nearly half.

(/ENG)

Navigating Life with ChatGPT: My AI Assistant Addiction | February 05 2025, 21:04

So, I’ve developed a bit of a ChatGPT addiction. It has overtaken Google and Facebook and is slowly creeping into all areas of life.

(Specifically, I use not only ChatGPT because for certain needs we have to use an analog developed by our engineers on our internal corporate network, so everything below is not only about ChatGPT, but about AI assistants in general. But for personal needs, it’s only ChatGPT for me.)

(1) Over the last six months, I’ve probably created a couple hundred Python scripts for data processing. I didn’t write any of the scripts myself (although I could; ask me again in a year or two, I might no longer be able to). To write a script for processing data, I just clearly state what I need, then closely examine the result, and if I like it, I run it. If it doesn’t work, and something needs tweaking, I tweak it myself. If it’s completely off, I ask for it to be redone. Most often, I end up with what I need. Example: read a CSV, create embeddings for all lines, cluster them, then write the results in separate files with the cluster number in the name. Or implement some complex data grouping.

I must mention bash commands separately. For example, I can’t recall how to sort lines from a file by length using command line and get the longest ones. Or I’m too lazy to remember detailed syntax for awk or jq to process something from the files through a pipe, it’s easier to ask ChatGPT.

(2) Lately, I frequently translate between Russian and English using LLMs. Rather than writing something in English myself, it’s easier to write it in Russian, get the translation, and then throw it into an email. It’s simply faster. It’s not even about the proficiency in English – of course, I could write it all myself. It’s about how much time is spent on phrasing. The argument “it’s twice as fast and clearer” beats all else. A downside—my English isn’t improving because of this.

(3) Generally, I run nearly 100% of the English texts I write through various LLMs, depending on the type of text. I ask them to correct the grammar, then copy-paste the result wherever I need—into an email or a Jira ticket. It seems I will soon have an anxiety that I sent something unreviewed. Because they always find something to correct, even if it’s just a minor thing like a missing article or a comma.

(4) When I’m too lazy to read large chunks of English text, I frequently throw them into ChatGPT and ask for a summary—sometimes in Russian. Can’t do this for work because the texts are often from clients, but if it’s really necessary, I also have access to a local LLM.

(5) I’m increasingly validating various design decisions (not visual design, but software design) through ChatGPT/LLM. I ask for criticism or additions. Often, the results make me think about what needs to be improved or what assumptions need to be added.

(6) I also use it for summarizing YouTube videos. Just download the subtitles in TXT format through Youtube subtitle downloader, throw them into an LLM, and then you can request summaries or ask questions based on them. It really helps to decide whether to watch the video or not.

What are your usage patterns?

Posthumous Publications of Twain and Kafka | February 05 2025, 05:00

Today I read that it turns out Mark Twain had willed that his autobiography (a manuscript of 5,000 pages, by the way) not be published until 100 years after his death, and then you can do whatever you want. Generally, those 100 years expired in 2010 and three volumes of the autobiography were published.

I also discovered that Kafka had intended for “The Trial” to be destroyed, but it was published anyway. That’s the one where the guy goes to court, and suddenly they start trying him there.

Exploring Emanuele Attadia: Ancient Themes in Modern Artistry | February 05 2025, 02:29

An intriguing artist — Emanuele Attadia (Italy, b. 1986). A fusion of the ancient and modern. There’s realism, yet it’s imbued with an unusual tenderness. I’m particularly fond of his use of color and his selection of motifs.

Similar posts can be found under the tag #artrauflikes, and on beinginamerica.com in the “Art Rauf Likes” section, where all 144 posts are catalogued (unlike Facebook, which loses track of (or disregards) nearly half of them).

Misunderstood Musicians: A KGB Officer’s Orchestral Oversight | February 04 2025, 22:45

A KGB officer came to check the symphony orchestra before their trip abroad. He watched the rehearsal. Sharing his impressions:

– Overall, not bad, you can feel the team spirit, especially those with the bows. But there are some shortcomings: that guy at the back, during the whole rehearsal, only hit with his stick about three times – he was mostly slacking off…

– Well, that’s our drummer, that’s his part…

– Don’t give me that, there’s only one Party for us, and he needs to hit more often! (C)

Anna Artamonova, this relates to your question about how we work 🙂

Exploring Arturo Márquez: A Contemporary Classical Journey | February 04 2025, 04:07

Nadya says, write about contemporary composers, not just about contemporary artists. Well, of course, she means classical, not pop music ones.

Here’s a good one for today – Mexican composer Arturo Márquez with his piece Danzon No. 2. Director Guillermo Ortiz Pichardo made a small short film about it, slightly nonsensical, but very much in tune with the music. By the way, the composer himself appears at 5:19.

In the comments, I’ve left a piano rendition of a segment performed by Yuja Wang. It might even be worth listening to these three minutes first. A really cool performance.

#musicrauflikes

Edible Gold: A Luxurious Yet Ineffective Delicacy | February 03 2025, 21:58

Recently, I was surprised to discover that gold leaf is edible, and when you see golden flakes on a quality cake, it’s actually real gold, not just some props. Here’s a kebab from Arkadiy Novikov and Jihan Deniz costing 23,550 rubles.

Another revelation was that such gold is quite affordable. A single sheet of purest 99.8% gold, palm-sized, sells for just 4 bucks. It’s sold in very thin sheets—about 100-500 nanometers thick (depending on the manufacturer). 100 nanometers is 0.0001 millimeters. To compare, the thickness of writing paper is 130,000 nanometers, and a human hair is about 60,000 nanometers thick, while a gold leaf is only 100-500. If calculated, a sheet is approximately 600 atoms thick. Edible gold also comes in powder and flakes.

Turns out, this gold has its own E-number, E175 (while E174 is edible silver). Gold is not absorbed by the body at all; it passes through unchanged, so logically, it offers no benefits. However, sellers of edible gold claim its benefits are sky-high and it cures almost all ailments. Studies conducted in 1975 and 2016 showed, however, that there are indeed no health benefits.

The only benefit here is to show off your wealth and brag to your friends that you are, literally, pooping gold (remember, it’s not digested). Whether you should sift through your toilet matters looking for gold is up to you…

Interestingly, even anciently, gold sheets were somehow made to be 500 times thinner than a human hair.

The production of gold leaf started around the end of the third millennium BC when craftsmen learned how to purify the metal and hammer it into thin sheets. Traditionally, during the Middle Ages, gold leaf was prepared by rolling or hammering gold ducats (trade coins used in Medieval Europe) into approximately the thickness of foil. As the metal became thinner, it became more challenging to prevent the foil from sticking to nearby moist or greasy surfaces. To prevent this, “gold beaters would lay a small square of thin metal in the middle of a paper or parchment square and other metal squares on top of it in sequence, until a decent stack was formed; then they skillfully hammered it until the small squares of metal spread to the edges of the parchment.” Then these squares were cut into smaller squares, and the process was repeated. For the final stage of beating, when the gold reached its thinnest point, a special type of parchment called “goldbeaters’ skin” (made from the inner lining of calf’s intestine) was placed between the layers of foil. According to Cennino Cennini, about 145 sheets could be made from one ducat, and a Venetian ducat weighed about 54 troy grains. However, Cennini preferred his gold leaf to be thicker and recommended producing only 100 sheets from one ducat.

Exploring the Science and History of Superglue Through Personal Experience | February 03 2025, 21:11

Two and a half years ago, I printed this phone holder on an SLA printer, a holder of my own design. And then my cat broke it with its paw. I started to glue it together with superglue, and realized that this plastic does not bond very well (but it still bonded after sanding). I began to investigate why, and found a lot of interesting information about superglue.

How does superglue work? Inside the tube, it remains liquid and consists of molecules of ethyl cyanoacrylate monomers. When the glue is applied to a surface, it fills the pores and cracks, which must be present for the glue to work—hence the importance of roughly sanding the surface. The polymerization reaction begins due to contact with water (including moisture in the air). Therefore, you should not wash off the glue with water, as it will set even faster. Acetone can be used—unless the glue is in the eyes. And it does get into the eyes, often because it is packaged in a container that resembles eye drops. The molecules begin to connect with each other, forming long polymeric chains, transforming from a liquid to a solid state.

Thanks to rapid polymerization, the glue sets in 10–30 seconds.

The glue also poorly bonds hydrophobic surfaces, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, Teflon. They lack free electrons for the glue to interact with and do not absorb moisture, which is necessary to initiate the reaction.

Impacts and shearing—superglue works excellently under tension, but is very brittle under impacts and shearing. This is its weak spot.

– Cyanoacrylate was discovered accidentally by the photo company Eastman Kodak (specifically by Harry Coover), who was trying to create a transparent plastic for gun sights.

– Unlike most plastics, which deteriorate after being recycled, superglue can be heated to 210°C and decomposed back into monomers. These monomers can then be reassembled to create a new, durable material. This allows for the recycling of plastic without loss of quality.

– The properties of the glue caught the interest of the US Army, particularly during the height of the Vietnam War. Transportation of the wounded took just minutes, but many soldiers died from uncontrollable bleeding. Therefore, in 1966, the US Army sent a special surgical brigade to South Vietnam, armed with aerosol sprays of cyanoacrylate. Although this method was used in a limited number of cases, out of 30 documented cases of using the glue to stop bleeding, it was successful in 26. A safer surgical glue was invented in 1998.

And the green sphere at the bottom is also an interesting object, I also printed it. It is a spherical section of a gyroid. A gyroid is a continuous (without self-intersections) infinitely repeating structure in three dimensions without any reflection symmetries. It is, incidentally, the only such structure known to science. Overall, it’s a way to create elements with minimum weight and maximum strength. Inside, essentially, it consists of sinusoids along three coordinates.