Pixopictura by Nicu Ilie (extended version)

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How money is made (full story)

-
Image
  video> How money is made in different countries Full story> in USA Money creation involves several processes, depending on whether we’re talking about physical currency or digital money. Physical Money (Coins and Banknotes)Design and Engraving: Artists and engravers create detailed designs, including security features like watermarks and holograms. Printing and Minting: Special paper or polymer is used for banknotes, while coins are minted from metal. Advanced printing techniques ensure durability and security. Quality Control: Each note and coin is inspected to ensure it meets strict standards before being released into circulation. Central Banks: Central banks, like the Federal Reserve in the U.S., create money by purchasing government securities, which increases the reserves of commercial banks. Commercial Banks: When commercial banks issue loans, they create money. The loan amount is credited to the borrower’s account, effectively creating new money. Security Features ...
Read more

How to train your robot to write literature?

-
Image
We, robot: the computer co-authoring a story with a human writer shutterstock. Shutterstock Leah Henrickson , Loughborough University In Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, a collection of nine short stories about robotics, Asimov explores the possibilities of human-computer interaction. How can humans and computers co-exist? How can they work together to make a better world? A research group from the Meertens Instituut in Amsterdam and the Antwerp Centre for Digital Humanities and Literary Criticism recently introduced a new digital creative writing system. Using a graphical interface, an author drafts a text sentence by sentence. Then, the system proposes its own sentences to continue the story. The human and the computer work together to create what the system’s developers call “synthetic literature”. The paper detailing this project describes the text generation system as an attempt to: Create a stimulating envir...
Read more

How many millionaires and how many billionaires are in the world and where they are living?

-
Image
 23.4 million people worldwide hold investments of at least one million dollars. It is an increase of 2.6% in 2024 and it has reached the highest level since the emergence of the World Wealth Report (since 1997). The world wealth exploded in 2024, in the top being the US, Japan, Germany and China. According to Forbes, there are 3 thousand billionaires in the world. with a total fortune of $16 trillion. I ask: is there or are there no links to the rise of far-right discourse worldwide? Where do the billionaires live? Most billionaires, 119 persons, live in New York. The cities of London, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Moscow, New Delhi and San Francisco each have more than 50 billionaires among residents. Other cities entering the top are Bangkok, Taipei, Paris, Hangzhou, Guangzhou (both in China), Jakarta, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Seoul, Tokyo, Bengaluru (India), Dallas and Palm Beach. Of the world’s 3000 billionaires, over two-thirds are r...
Read more

Great ghost cities of the world (top 10)

-
Image
  video: Largest abandoned cities in the world TOP 10 1. Bodie (United States of America, California) . It is probably the most famous ghost town (it even has a Facebook page). Shortly after it was built, the city reached a population of 10,000 inhabitants, in 1880, and was gradually abandoned due to numerous fires. 2. Hashima Island (Japan) . Between 1887 and 1974, the island represented a coal mine and at the same time the most populated place on earth, hosting over 13,000 people per square kilometer. The decline of the island occurred due to the discovery of another fuel that replaced coal, oil. The mine was closed and, overnight, the inhabitants left it to dry, leaving behind all their goods to rot. It is currently forbidden to approach the island, for safety reasons. 3. Pripyat (Ukraine) . Built in 1970 for employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the city of 50,000 inhabitants was abandoned after the 1986 explosion. 4. Sanzhi Bridge City (Taiwan). Located in northern ...
Read more

An image (with pollution) is worth a thousand words: Leicester then and now

-
Image
   I am not sure that global warming is caused by pollution. (This is only 99.9% sure; there is still room for evidence.) But images like this one (Leicester 1950) think that it shouldn't give way to a discussion we need to behave responsibly, protect the environment, reduce pollution. Of course, developed States have a greater responsibility than the rest of the world, and the United States above all. But I remember a short visit to a Central European country many years ago, when I hit a truly apocalyptic landscape. The image of Leicester would have seemed brilliant in addition to the red fog there. Video: Residential districts of Leicester today, built on former industrial zones
Read more

First signs of economic colaps in Russia

-
Image
 From the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine, Rusia economy get a burst by rising prices for natural gas and by giving a lot of state contracts in strategic industries. The international sanctions was for long time inefficient.  Now, according to BBC, that quote Russian newspapers, there are first signs of true economic problems in the Russian society. Today’s Russian papers focusing again on economic problems: ▪️ “To pay utility bills some Russians are falling into debt" ▪️ “Rise in bread prices outstripping inflation” ▪️“Cement factories on the brink” ▪️ Call to "freeze basic food prices to battle inflation" #ReadingRussia pic.twitter.com/QpGEUVoCw4 — Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) July 18, 2025 Today’s Russian papers focusing again on economic problems: ▪️ “To pay utility bills some Russians are falling into debt" ▪️ “Rise in bread prices outstripping inflation” ▪️“Cement factories on the brink” ▪️ Call to "freeze basic food prices to battle inflation...
Read more

AI animations: world history - dozens of cultures and nations, fashion and architecture

-
Image
The Geography Hub platform has produced an extremely extensive series of reels dedicated to some of the most famous cultures in the world (predominantly from Europe and the Mediterranean). The videos very briefly tell the history of each population, with some of the most important moments, recreating for each of them, frugal, the characteristic clothing of each era (and specific to the respective culture) and an architectural-anthropic environment, also localized and contextualized historically. Cultures/nations to which (so far) reels have been dedicated include: French, Ottomans, Russians, Egyptians, Persians, Japanese, Colombians, Italians, Canadians, Indonesians, Hungarians, Greeks, Australians, Romanians, Koreans, Icelanders, Moroccans, etc. Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574041054737&sk=reels_tab
Read more

A 2 thousand year old building and still functional

-
Image
  A building in Istanbul is so old that it has captured all the empires that have mastered this city. It's not just a simple — construction it's a veritable time capsule where history has laid layer upon layer over centuries. From Rome at present, in one wall At the base of the building you can see elements typical of the Roman Empire: thick stone walls and massive columns, reminiscent of the era when the city was called Byzantion and was part of the vast empire of Rome. Byzantine marks over the Roman ruins Immediately above it rises structures with elegant arches and specific details of Byzantine architecture. These elements were added in the period when the city became Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire and one of the most important centers of the medieval Christian world. New shape during Otoman Empire On the next level, masonry and style become more functional, reflecting the Ottoman period, when the city was conquered by the Turks in 1453 and transformed i...
Read more

Online advertising

-
Image
 The world still uses the predefined formats that prevailed in the early days of the Internet, when pages were mostly read on a desktop/laptop. Leaderboard, skyscraper, wide skyscraper, etc. But most users use mobile phones today. Those who want to serve static ads in image format have a problem if they want to display the same image on both desktop and mobile: none of the formats fit except square ones. Instead, add-on platforms have become more specialized, using codes to determine the user's screen size and serve the ad accordingly. However, what do you do when the user resizes? very large
Read more