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Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Thu 07 Feb , 2019 2:15 pm
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:Q :LMAO:

Wow.

And I really want to see pics of the NYC apartment now.

Two articles that have shown that a fool and his/her money are soon parted.

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Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Thu 07 Feb , 2019 9:24 pm
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I'd like to hear what the conversation was when Gucci's design team came up with that idea.

"We need something that rich people will happily spend $900 on. Something unique, that screams status and wealth."

"Well, what do we know about rich people?"

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 11 Feb , 2019 8:33 pm
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I assume the thinking was "black is stylish," which is a common idea in fashion, and lips/ lipstick are stylish, and cutouts are trendy right now, and they put them together in a sweater.

(btw, black shoes with faces on them are also racist now. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/i ... esemblance Don't ask me why anyone would want faces on their shoes, but whatever happened to "black is beautiful"? It seemed a much healthier message than seeing offense in inanimate black objects with a face on them.)






And the latest outrage in the US is ....



airplane paper napkins that encourage conversation and flirting.

https://www.prdaily.com/delta-and-coke- ... s-napkins/
Quote:
It started with 33 words on napkins advertising Diet Coke:

“because you’re on a plane of full of interesting people and hey … you never know,” the front teases. The back [says] “be a little old school. write down your number & give it to your plane crush. you never know …”

Some passengers, like Terry Pendergist, thought the napkins were “Pretty funny.”

But others said they were creepy and unwelcome.

...The napkins are being pulled. “We rotate Coke products regularly as part of our brand partnership, but missed the mark with this one,” Delta said in a statement to The Washington Post and other news outlets. “We are sorry for that and began removing the napkins from our aircraft in January.”

Coca-Cola also said in a statement to The Post, “We sincerely apologize to anyone we may have offended,”
I've reached the point where I'm wondering if half this "I'm offended" stuff is being driven by a bunch of teenage kids who want to see just how far they can push things and are laughing their heads off.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 13 Feb , 2019 12:41 am
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The idiot who filmed herself throwing a chair off a balcony onto a Toronto expressway, has been big news here in Canada during the past week. Now the police know who she is and are urging her to turn herself in.

If you want to get really mad, read this article and watch the video.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 13 Feb , 2019 2:19 pm
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She's an idiot, but I'm surprised any human would have had the strength to throw a chair as far as the road. Once she threw it as far as she could, I'd think it would fall straight down, or maybe a little to the side if it was windy. (and maybe that's what it did - the article says it landed "in front of the entrance to the condo"). Still an idiot and a dangerous one, since someone could have walked under her after she looked over and anything falling from that height could do to a good deal of injury to a person.



btw, if you want to see an absolutely hideous pair of shoes, look up the ones in the latest clothing outrage fuss. They also came in beige and gold with the same cartoonish face.

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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 13 Feb , 2019 2:35 pm
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I tried to get mad about it, I really did, but all I could think was; wouldn't it be great if the idiots of the world were armed with nothing worse than deck chairs?


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 13 Feb , 2019 3:02 pm
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Yeah, I though the same thing. :)

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 18 Feb , 2019 2:25 pm
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Not too surprising, given the bizarre circumstances in this case (for instance, who would actually keep a noose around their neck after someone puts it there), but sad. This sort of thing does no good for legitimate claims of racism or homophobic attacks.

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/i ... ack-report
Quote:
Chicago police now believe that "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to stage an attack that the actor and his family claimed was perpetrated by men yelling racist, homophobic, and pro-Trump language.

Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that police now believe Smollett paid two men arrested previously and spoke to investigators, adding that police have records of the two men purchasing rope that Smollett said was tied around his neck at a Chicago-area Ace Hardware store.
Last week, the police arrested and were questioning a couple of people "of Nigerian descent" (they were originally reported as Nigerians, but now they're said to be US citizens) who worked with Smollett. I figured, at that point, that his claims were about to fall apart.

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Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 20 Feb , 2019 4:46 am
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That is so disgusting. We all have a hard enough time knowing who to believe and not to believe. Ugh.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 20 Feb , 2019 2:42 pm
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To be honest, I was skeptical from the start, though I reserved judgement until more information came out. Sometimes things seem implausible because the media got some misinformation in the early stages or an outlet is slanting it in a certain way.

The story was just too weird. A semi-famous actor decides he's so hungry after arriving in Chicago at 2am that he heads out to Subway, walking in dangerously cold temperatures to grab a sandwich? (though he surely passed through airports where he could have grabbed something, or taken a taxi) Two people recognize him, all bundled up in the cold, and were just waiting around in the cold with bleach and a noose in case he decided to leave his hotel on foot in the middle of the night? The city of Chicago is "MAGA country"? He has the noose around his neck when he calls the police from where he's staying, after walking home after the attack?

The only thing that surprised me, and the reason I posted it, is that he plotted the whole thing himself. I expected it to be opportunistic - I thought it most likely he had made up a story after a mugging, or maybe a drug deal or sexual encounter that went wrong (i.e., something embarrassing or illegal he didn't want to admit to).

What worries me more is the rise of video editing that can make plausible fake videos.
It's bad enough that we already get snippets of video that tell you nothing about what happened before or after the event in question, and could be twisting the truth by omission.

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Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Thu 21 Feb , 2019 2:22 pm
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https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... er-his-dog
Quote:
German court declares man unfit to carry a gun after his dog shot him

btw, I saw somewhere that Jussie Smollett has lied to the police before. Apparently he claimed to be his younger brother when he was stopped for some traffic violation (speeding? DUI? something like that). Nice guy.

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Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Thu 21 Feb , 2019 7:01 pm
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Did they give a firearms license to the dog?

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Fri 22 Feb , 2019 9:14 pm
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No, the dog was cited, too, and is planning to appeal the decision.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 25 Feb , 2019 4:58 pm
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The writing of this AI is so human that its creators are scared to release it
Quote:
The tool was created by OpenAI, a non-profit research firm whose backers include Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman and which was founded with the mission of "discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence."

But now OpenAI is concerned that something these well-intentioned researchers built could easily be misused, fearing that it would be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Example of human-written text followed by AI text:

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 25 Feb , 2019 5:16 pm
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Apart from the pretty obvious error of Unicorns having, y'know, one horn, that's very cool!

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Tue 05 Mar , 2019 2:07 pm
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It's not just in our minds! It's a thing! :Q :LMAO:

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/69983254 ... QGg2qtO4_4

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nienna
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Tue 05 Mar , 2019 4:37 pm
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Funnily enough I just finished reading Dan Brown's "Origin" featuring Winston, the most advanced and realistic AI program yet...

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Tue 05 Mar , 2019 5:23 pm
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Robots and AI are getting a lot of news lately. I read something a little while ago - I think it was in Asia Times- about a Chinese student who used a handwriting robot to do her tedious homework. And a writing program wrote a short story that made it through the first round of a literary competition in Japan: https://www.asianscientist.com/2016/04/ ... -hakodate/
To be fair, though, humans gave it the words to use. I assume the program you posted about is similar, Jude?


Lali, some of the stories in your link are pretty wild. :D



But I really came in here to post this because I thought it was funny, in a dark humor sort of way:
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/70017547 ... ast-breath
Quote:
Elderly Trump Critics Await Mueller's Report — Sometimes Until Their Last Breath
Quote:
"It just was quiet for a little while," Walter Tendler recounted, "and then he just sits up in bed halfway and looks at me and he goes, 'S***, I'm not going to see the Mueller report, am I?' And that was really the last coherent thing that he said."
I could just see myself saying that... :)




And another bizarre fashion item hits the news:
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/201 ... -sensation
Quote:
Since its debut on the catwalk last week, the Jacquemus Mini Le Chiquito bag has had the fashion world in a spin – and the rest of the planet scratching its head.

Measuring a minuscule 5.2cm (two inches) long, the bag is smaller than a credit card and can fit in the palm of the wearer’s hand.
Its price has not been set yet, but the 4 x 2 inch version of the same bag sells for $500. :Q

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Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Tue 05 Mar , 2019 5:37 pm
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LalaithUrwen wrote:
It's not just in our minds! It's a thing! :Q :LMAO:

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/69983254 ... QGg2qtO4_4
Quote:
From this, the Injury Claim Coach's team created the F.L.O.R.I.D.A. man Scoring System to "quantify the Florida Man-ness of any news article appearing on the web."

In their system, nearly every Florida Man story contains one of the following categories: Firearms (or other weapons), Locations, Objects, Reasons for Arrest, Injuries, Drugs and alcohol, and Animals

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Fri 08 Mar , 2019 1:16 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... f-marriage
Quote:
Utah legislature passes bill legalizing sex outside of marriage
Incredibly, the vote was 41 to 32

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Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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