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AI and the end of photographic truth

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

THE END OF PHOTOGRAPHIC TRUTHWho you gonna believe? Me or your own lying AIs?By GIAN VOLPICELLIPhoto-illustration by Pablo Delcan and MidjourneyABOUT THE IMAGES: The AI program Midjourney doesn’t just create pictures. It can analyze an image and provide a prompt — or descriptive language — that could have been used to create it. We selected some of the most iconic photographs of the last century and asked it to do just that. We then fed the resulting prompts back into Midjourney. The images you see in this story, which took just seconds to generate, are the result.Call it The Tale of Two Selfies.Shortly after two members of the Indian wrestling team were arrested in New Delhi while protesting alleged sexual harassment by the president of the national wrestling federation, two nearly identical photos of the duo began circulating online.Both showed the two women inside a police van among officers and other members of their team. But in one they looked glum. In the other, they were bea...

Mike Preston’s report card: Position-by-position grades for Ravens’ 38-6 win over Lions | COMMENTARY

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Here’s how the Ravens (5-2) graded out at each position after a 38-6 win over the Detroit Lions (5-2) in Sunday’s Week 7 game at M&T Bank Stadium:QuarterbackLamar Jackson completed 21 of 27 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns. In the first half, he made plays by moving around in the pocket when the pass protection broke down. He made some excellent reads on run-pass options and threw some tight passes into small windows in the end zone. Jackson overthrew several receivers and held onto a handoff to running back Justice Hill, which resulted in a lost fumble, but he also ran for 36 yards on nine carries. He finished with a nearly perfect passer rating of 155.8. Grade: ARunning backsThe running game usually opens up the passing game, but this time it was totally different. Once Jackson started ripping up the Lions’ secondary, the passing game opened up big holes for the rushing attack. By the second quarter, the Ravens had started to impose their will. Gus E...

Dress for success on your next job interview

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

In his masterpiece “Crime and Punishment,” author Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”The great Russian novelist is referring to the fact that impressions can be made even before conversations begin. This is an important notion to grasp and can do a job seeker a world of good in every interaction during the hiring process, including the interview. Recruiters may have an understanding of you as an applicant from your resume and other correspondences, but it is during the interview – whether it’s in person or remote – that a hiring manager can really get a sense of your energy and professionalism.While no one wants to be judged on appearance alone, what you look like and how you dress affect others’ first impression of you. Doing all you can to tip the scales in your favor may lead to favorab...

Pipes: Most Americans don’t want Medicare for All

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Progressives’ entire rationale for “Medicare for All” is based on a lie. Or rather, two lies.They assert that Americans are both dissatisfied with the health insurance status quo and that a single-payer system would eliminate that dissatisfaction.But according to recent polling, neither claim is true. Americans are broadly happy with the existing health insurance system. And single-payer would manifestly worsen — not solve — the problems Americans do face under the status quo.Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., aptly summarizes the progressive viewpoint. He recently described the current insurance system as “totally broken, dysfunctional and cruel.”So he’d no doubt be surprised by the results of a new nationwide survey commissioned by my organization, the Pacific Research Institute, which found that 90% of Americans are “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with their current health insurance plan — an increase of fou...

The Ravens heard the Lions’ noise and had a ‘chip’ on their shoulder. The result? ‘The score is the judge.’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

The Ravens heard the roar.The Detroit Lions came into Sunday’s game against Baltimore with just one loss, averaging 28 points per game and having racked up at least 350 yards of offense in every game this season. They also arrived at M&T Bank Stadium with headlines and hype as one of the best teams in the NFL.It wasn’t lost on Ravens players.“I’m from the ‘show me’ business,” linebacker Roquan Smith said. “A lot of things happened here and there, but you have to show me once we’re on the field. I don’t believe in all the things you hear and say. Like I said, that team hadn’t been tested just yet, so that’s what it was.“I think the score is the judge, as well as … They got cheap yards at the end, but hats off to just the way we played as a team, and I’m just proud to be a part of it.”That score, a 38-6 drubbing, was a statement — of a Ravens offense finally delivering the kind of...

Moore: Our public schools are a national disaster

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Perhaps what’s most distressing about the latest collapse in high school test scores is that no one seems to be very distressed.You’ve probably heard the news that ACT scores have fallen for the sixth straight year. Our high school kids are less equipped for a job or college than at any time in three decades.Why isn’t anyone in Washington or anyone in our $800 billion education bureaucracy sounding the alarm and declaring this a national emergency? It certainly puts our national security, our technological superiority and our economic prosperity in grave danger.Instead of outrage, it is almost as if Americans have become anesthetized to bad news about our kids.One theory is that Americans feel about their local schools as they do toward Congress: They love their own representative but think the rest of the members are corrupt and incompetent.Exactly 40 years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its findings on the state of the schools in i...

Editorial: Civilian casualties part of Hamas’ terror plan

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Early news reports are the first draft of history, and Hamas’ effort to blame Israel for an explosion at a Gaza hospital are collapsing under scrutiny. It’s also vital to understand that there’s a vast gulf between trying to minimize civilian casualties and encouraging them as a propaganda tool.Hundreds were killed last Tuesday in Gaza City at a hospital crowded with people seeking safe haven. U.S. intelligence officials say the explosion came from a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group that went off prematurely.“Among the evidence that’s been gathered is a blast analysis that suggests it was a ground explosion rather than an airstrike that hit the hospital,” a source told CNN. “There was no singular crater suggesting there was a bomb, but there was extensive fire damage and scattered debris that is consistent with an explosion starting from the ground level, according to the source.”Israel also released an audio recording that it said caught Hamas operatives discu...

Week 7 recap: Chicago Bears dominate the Las Vegas Raiders 30-12 in rookie QB Tyson Bagent’s 1st NFL start

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent led three touchdown drives in his first career start to lift the Chicago Bears to a 30-12 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at Soldier Field.It was the Bears’ first home victory since Sept. 25, 2022, snapping a franchise-record 10-game streak.The Bears relied heavily on their running game, with D’Onta Foreman totaling 89 yards on the ground and Darrynton Evans adding 48. Foreman scored two rushing touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass.Meanwhile, Bagent, an undrafted rookie who last started a regular-season game for Division II Shepherd, completed 21 of 29 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t commit a turnover against a Raiders defense that entered the game with just five takeaways this season and was sacked once.Bagent was starting in place of Justin Fields, who injured his right thumb in Week 6.The Bears defense got three interceptions — one from Tremaine Edmunds and two from Jaylon Johnson — again...

‘Anatomy of a Fall’ weaves mystery, courtroom drama

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

A smash hit in France after winning the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top prize, “Anatomy of a Fall” soars with its fresh approach to the classic courtroom drama.Like the great 1959 “Anatomy of a Murder,” whose aura this “Anatomy” invokes, what co-writer and director Justine Triet aims to emphasize with her “Anatomy” is ambiguity.  In Otto Preminger’s masterpiece the question is not if a jealous husband killed the man accused of raping his wife, it’s “was it really non-consensual?”“That movie is very important for me.  I saw that movie 10 years ago,” Triet, 45, said in a post-screening Q&A at the New York Film Festival. “It’s so modern the way they are playing in the courtroom.”In “Anatomy of a Fall” the question is whether Sandra (Germany’s Sandra Hüller), a writer, pushed her husband, also a writer, out the window of their Grenoble chalet. Or did he jump?His dead body is discovered in the snow by his partially blind 9-year-old son who had been out walking their dog.This “Ana...

Dear Abby: Cross-dressing man eager for Halloween

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:17 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m a cross-dresser who is able to enjoy wearing women’s clothes in private at home. With Halloween around the corner, I want nothing more than to be fully dressed as a woman and go outside to experience how it feels. I want to wear a nice dress, high heels, pantyhose, wig, makeup, etc.My wife knows I enjoy dressing up and tolerates it. But she’s unwilling to let me express myself out of the house or help me with the process. How can I get her to help me get dolled up and experience being a woman for one night? I feel so deprived not being able to be who I want to be. — Dressed and ReadyDear Dressed: Halloween is the one night of the year when many people, yourself included, can decide to dress up and become who they really are (or would like to be). Because your wife won’t assist you, consider visiting a makeup counter and asking one of the salespeople to help with your makeup that night. And, if nothing in your closet suits the real you, re...