Monday, January 13, 2020

Statue mocking Donald Trump torched in Slovenia



LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — A wooden statue mocking U.S. President Donald Trump was burned to the ground Thursday in Slovenia, the birthplace of his wife Melania, authorities said.

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Slovenian police are looking for the arsonist

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When triggered, a mechanism inside the statue opened a red-painted mouth and shark-like teeth used to appear.

Like all populists, the statue has two faces,” its creator, Tomaz Schlegl, said when he unveiled the statue last August. “One is humane and nice, the other is that of a vampire.”

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Milan Balazic, the mayor of Moravce where the statue ended up, said that unknown arsonists burned it.

He said the torching of the statue “is symbol of intolerance toward artistic projects in our society.”

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by Ali Zerdin

Thursday, January 9, 2020

How to spot deepfakes

" 'There is not a 100% foolproof way of identifying deepfakes, not even for AI researchers...Detection is always going to be an arms race. As people develop more accurate detection algorithms, fakers will develop even more sophisticated frauds.' "

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Vogue Italia eschews photos for sustainable January issue

"Vogue Italia’s January issue features eight different illustrated covers that involved no travel and rticles (sic) about clothes that are “reborn” from scrap fabric and hand-me-downs.
"Farneti said the savings from producing an issue without costly photo shoots would go toward restoring a Venice student foundation that was severely damaged by high tide floods in November.
"The fashion industry has been increasingly going green, with experts saying luxury consumers in particular are willing to pay more for sustainable garments and items that don’t exploit workers."