JOURNALISTS: READ IT AND WEEP! The Washington Post will use robots to write stories about the Rio Olympics

JOURNALISTS: READ IT AND WEEP! The Washington Post will use robots to write stories about the Rio Olympics:

The Post is using homegrown software to automatically produce hundreds of real-time news reports about the Olympics. Starting tomorrow morning, those items will appear, without human intervention, on the Post’s website, as well as in outside channels like its Twitter account.

The idea is to use artificial intelligence to quickly create simple but useful reports on scores, medal counts and other data-centric news bits — so that the Post’s human journalists can work on more interesting and complex work, says Jeremy Gilbert, who heads up new digital projects for the paper.

“We’re not trying to replace reporters,” he said. “We’re trying to free them up.”

Gilbert and Sam Han, the paper’s head of data science, have a team of three engineers working full-time on Heliograf, the Post’s AI software. A few more product analysts are spending about half of their time on the project, and four or five newsroom staffers are also spending time shaping the software.

Goodbye yellow brick road.

Goodbye reporting…

‘STEELBERG’ is the person who deserves credit for the picture...

‘STEELBERG’ is the person who deserves credit for the picture you are seeing.. 

This is what a STRANGER THINGS VHS cover art box would have looked like if it would have been released in the 1980s.. And since the show is based with the 80s as the setting, the cover art and photo just feel right. Like it WAS made in the Reagan era.. 

There are also many more images of what VHS cover art would have looked like for modern shows..

Very impressive work.

It makes me nostalgic for things that ACTUALLY EXIST NOW.

Well done.

politico: .@HillaryClinton: I ‘short-circuited’ on...

http://ift.tt/2aH93Qr//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js

politico:

.@HillaryClinton: I ‘short-circuited’ on ‘truthful’ email answer

Ooops.

Fans feud with critics ahead of ‘Suicide Squad’ release

Fans feud with critics ahead of ‘Suicide Squad’ release:

This has turned into a mean ordeal..

Critics have lambasted the film.. some have called for the website ROTTEN TOMATOES to actually be shut down because of the negative press that has been linked on the SUICIDE SQUAD page.. 

What is noteworthy about the aforementioned article linked here: My friend Anghus Houvouras from Flickering Myth got quoted by CNBC about the movie and controversy:

“I think they believe the potential is there. Take (2016’s) ‘Ghostbusters’ which pushed a very strong misogynist narrative. It became less about the quality of the film and more about the 'importance’ of a blockbuster with an all-female leading cast,” Anghus Houvouras, movie maker and writer for the pop culture website Flickering Myth, told CNBC via email.

“Sony and Paul Feig got on board and beat that horse to death. But it didn’t end up resulting in the kind of cultural zeitgeist they were hoping for. Those who benefit from feuds are the media and websites that proliferate a binary narrative. Conflict breeds clicks,” he said.

The FDA Just Greenlit Releasing Mutant Zika-killing Mosquitoes in Florida!

The FDA Just Greenlit Releasing Mutant Zika-killing Mosquitoes in Florida!:

On Friday, the FDA released a final environmental assessment of the trial, finding that it “will not have significant impacts on the environment.” The project, led by Oxitec, a biotech company that focuses on insect control, calls for the release of thousands of genetically engineered male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The lab insects are bred so that over time they could kill off much of the local mosquito population by passing on a gene fatal to any offspring they have with wild females.

"NEWS ACCESS RULES APPLICABLE FOR THE BROADCAST OF THE GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD, RIO DE JANEIRO,..."

“NEWS ACCESS RULES APPLICABLE FOR THE BROADCAST OF THE GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD, RIO DE JANEIRO, 5-21 AUGUST 2016”

-

The title of the document from the 

International Olympic Committee that is prohibiting without exception the use of GIFs of memorable Olympics moments..

The full text reads: 

“Internet and Mobile Platforms Notwithstanding any other applicable limitation included in these NARs, Olympic Material must not be broadcast on interactive services such as “news active” or “sports active” or any other related Video on Demand services, which would allow the viewer to make a viewing choice within a channel and to thereby view Olympic Material at times and programs other than when broadcast as part of a News Program as set out in Clause 1 above. Additionally, the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.”

and with that.. the GIFs are banned.. Done. Edited out. Down the memory hole. Nonexistent. 

WELCOME TO RIO…The summer Olympics are set.. Brazil is...

WELCOME TO RIO…

The summer Olympics are set.. Brazil is ready? Maybe..
The opening ceremonies begin tonight even if there are still pollutants in water and mosquitoes on the loose.

Zika was the big fear.. other fears have come since.

A sampling for some headlines potentially paints a not so rosy scenario concerning the Rio Games …

CNN reports that Rio’s hospitals may not be ready to handle issues that arise..

The New York TIMES talks about the opening games beginning amid corruption in Brazil..

There are widespread political ramifications from protests in Rio..

NBC is tape delaying the opening ceremonies..

The Olympics are not just about sports.. but about international relations. Big politics.. big criminals. And on that note, 1000 US spies are set to protect the games..

The International Olympics Committee is BANNING GIFs!

The average Americans' weight gain since the 1980s is startling

The average Americans' weight gain since the 1980s is startling :

Americans are getting heavier and heavier. But new U.S. estimates may still come as a shock – since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the average American has put on 15 or more additional pounds without getting any taller.

David Paulides was back on Coast to Coast AM to talk about missing people, missing hunters, and strange tree people.

As expected, David Paulides dropped new stories during his appearance last night on Coast to Coast AM.. Stories of hunters. Weird tales of people who know the forest, people who utilize various forms of instrumentation to find directions, people who carry weapons, all vanishing without a trace. In some instances, traces are found. In one specific story, one man was found after being dead for two weeks. But he wasn’t dead the whole time.. the coroner’s report in that instance said he was dead for only four days. The weird anomaly: His feet were literally worn down to the bone—literally the bottoms of his feet were worn away.


These are the types of stories that David Paulides tells George Knapp, the occasional host of the macabre airwaves under the cover of moonlight..


There was a new bombshell dropped last night during the program. Paulides described a bow hunter in the forest with her Blackberry—before the bankruptcy of the company, obviously. She noticed how the forest seemed to stop dead—no noise, no sound. Just silence. It felt strange. She went on to describe what really makes little sense: Just like in the movie PREDATOR, fuzzy saran-wrap-like figures jumping from one tree to the next.. She even snapped a photo of what appeared to be a mostly fuzzy landscape with a hairlike structure near the edge of the picture. The amazing story aside, the bow hunter’s husband is Dr. Bruce Maccabee—a very well known UFO expert..


It’s all so weird, so bizarre.


Paulides went on last night to also remind listeners of some prior cases where people came back from being missing. Those people describe having fuzzy memories, people looking at them from behind shrubs in the woods, or not even recall being last. Almost like walking into another reality, as George Knapp pointed out during the show.
I have been an avid reader of Paulides books. I also spoke to George Knapp about this very topic a bit ago…


It fascinates me and scares me alike. I live near the woods in Pennsylvania. And I also had me own experience that I wrote about in May 2014.


During that time, I had a similar experience where the ‘forest went silent.’ Though my moment of silence was even weirder because, at midnight when it occurred, one lone songbird actually began to sing in the middle of the night. I saw a meteor or something streak across the sky, and then immediately began hearing what sounded, for lack of any better explanation, a chain-like noise. Almost like something being drug across the forest floor. But I did not hear footsteps. My dog Mutley heard it too and got into an attack formation, coupled with the hair on his spine rising as high as I ever saw it.. The noise continued to get louder and louder until it seemed like it was literally on top of me. I grew very cold and afraid. Despite turning on a spotlight on the side of the house, I saw nothing at all.. The noise dissipated after a few minutes. It felt like I was in the middle of a recording, or endless loop of some other reality..


The most troubling aspect of my personal tale is this: I had this foreboding sense about the whole thing. While I wanted to go about 15 more feet and step into the forest, I had some weird notion that whatever it was making this noise WANTED me to walk into the woods.. almost like it was tempting me to enter its territory and terrain, as though there was some weird boundary that it could not cross…
Equally strange was a conversation I had with a deer hunter a few months ago. Given my interest I the unusual, I asked him if he ever had a ‘dead forest’ moment when he hunted. He said he did.. but it did not last long. He was deer hunting at a camp with several other hunters. While outside for a cigarette, he said the woods literally went dead and lifeless for about ten or so seconds. And then the noises of the forest came back again.


All so weird.. so strange. So peculiar.


The complex mystery continues. There seems to be no sound answer to the lost and unfound.
David Paulides offered no reasonable explanation, as he purposely does not. George Knapp described it all as best he could: Like a harvest.


The harvest idea may be the most frightening of all to contemplate.

Tonight George Knapp goes see into the woods...

…literally.
The murky surroundings of our strange planet..

Guesting on Coast to Coast Am with Knapp will be David Paulides, the author of Missing 411..

Paulides will talk about strange disappearances as usual. Tonight with some new information..
Give it a listen.
With the lights out..

Is Justin Bieber really planning his own funeral? Star allegedly making 'elaborate plans'

Is Justin Bieber really planning his own funeral? Star allegedly making 'elaborate plans' :

Apparently he is planning to have 3d holograms and a solar paneled tombstone that will constantly play his music.. He is also reportedly very serious about the funeral plans despite some early laughs from those close to him.

It is a little bizarre perhaps.. But Biebs is 22.. he saw some pretty amazing people die young this year, like Prince.. And maybe he is also aware of the dreaded ‘27 club’ that so many stars have found themselves become the victim of..

After all… we all have something dark and menacing tagging behind us until the end..

Dem Aide Seth Rich's Death Still Inspiring Conspiracy Theories

Dem Aide Seth Rich's Death Still Inspiring Conspiracy Theories:

You can read the story on your own from Heatst.com …

You may think it sounds ludicrous.. ridiculous. But conspiracies happen. And yes, in politics, even murders do too..

It’s the time to shed the skin. Snake season 2016 begins....

It’s the time to shed the skin. Snake season 2016 begins.
Just pray that, unlike ‘15, they stay OUT of the house..

Some in Australia are using the Graffiti Prevention Act of 2007...

Some in Australia are using the Graffiti Prevention Act of 2007 to take down this mural of Hillary Clinton..
Just thought you should know..

A simple household decoration that be great in color.. But...

A simple household decoration that be great in color.. But deeply foreboding in black and white.
Art is everywhere .. Life is art. Go draw.

EXPERTS from the United Nations have sent state-of-the art detection equipment to Brazil over fears suicidal terror nuts will target the Olympics with a devastating ‘dirty bomb’.

EXPERTS from the United Nations have sent state-of-the art detection equipment to Brazil over fears suicidal terror nuts will target the Olympics with a devastating ‘dirty bomb’.:

It’s curious to ponder.. What should athletes fear the most? Zika? Dirty bombs? Or those warnings not to ingest water during certain games because of pollution and dead bodies.
Anyone wondering like me if Rio is even ready?

Nasa to launch probe to investigate 'Armageddon' asteroid!

Nasa to launch probe to investigate 'Armageddon' asteroid!:

The 2100s are going to be troublesome… A giant asteroid is set then to pass between the earth and the moon.
Chances are the media will only start reporting about it a few days prior. Nothing changes.

Soccer fanatic

My son’s first soccer game is quickly approaching.. my wife and I as coaches has been pretty cool to be honest. The kids are amazing, funny, and filled with life and energy. A lot of energy.. so much so that we are winded after practices a lot more than the four and five year olds we are attempting to form into a cohesive set of players ..

But what is strange, and perhaps somehow due to my son’s seemingly honest love of the game of soccer, is how many times in the past few days he watched the movie UNDERDOGS. MY wife wathced it alone with him twice.. I did twice too.. and we as a family watched it a number of times.

As a matter of fact, as I type this post, he is watching it again. I lost count.
It is great, though.. the movie i wonderful and has an excellent lesson about how victory is not everything..

Truly an amazing movie.
UNDERDOGS is a good movie.. even if your child is not a soccer fan.

I love Infinite Waters and have really come to love an respect...

I love Infinite Waters and have really come to love an respect Ralph Smart. I have followed for years, but lately his message and the overall goal of Ralph seems to be really resonating with a lot of amazing people .. Kudos to him.

And kudos on this infographic..

For anyone who has either cut back on meat or cut it out completely, you know what stark and dire warnings you have been given by meat eaters.. you have been told you will be unhealthy and die early.. you have also been asked the dreaded question: Where do YOU get your protein from!

I often ask back, where do YOU get your fiber from? Since meat does not contain any bit of it…
But it surely has cholesterol..

That being said, there also are some vegans who have come to truly get under my skin and make me boil with anger.. if they want to convince someone to go veg, being vindictive on YouTube is not the approach.. they just fall into the normal talking point people say about them. Perception is reality. Reality is also perception…

But if you have it in your heart, your private heart, to ponder a reduction in meat.. and you fear protein loss? Just look at that infographic here.. just realize you have plenty of sources.

Vitamin B12 and Iron may be a necessary concern for supplementation, but not protein if you have an overall whole foods planet based source of protein..

I bought my son his first MAD magazine yesterday...

He halfway apperciated it.

I think as he gets older he will fully accept the terms and conditions of life with the reading of this mag monthly..

Alfred E. Neuman is back in my life.. instead of hiding MAD behind other rags, I can now leave it proudly on top of the stack and simply say it’s my son’s magazine. Wink wink.