[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'AI Generated Art Scene Explodes as Hackers Create Groundbreaking New Tools

[...] modifying an OpenAI model to make astonishing image generation tools.

All you have to do to guide these systems is to prompt them with the image you want. For example, you might prompt them with the text: 'a fantasy world.' [...] that prompt[...] generated the image that you see above.

The crisp, coherent, and high-resolution quality of the images that these tools create differentiate them from AI art tools that have come before. The tools are highly iterative—in the video below, you can see the generation of an image based on the words "a man being tortured to death by a demon."




[...] "These systems are the first ones that actually sort of meet 'the promise of text-to-image.'"

[...]

The new tools are readily available to anyone who wants to use them. [...] Following the instructions, a savvy user can run the system in a matter of minutes from a web-based programming notebook.

"The results are so shocking that for many they seem to defy belief," Crowson said in an email. "CLIP is trained on 400 million image/text pairs," she continued. "At that scale we begin to see abilities we had previously only seen in human artists such as abstraction and analogies."

[...] beautiful images of abstract sunsets[...] idyllic countryside houses and giant cities[...] weapons depicted with an unsettling animosity[...] Escher-type structures that reel away into themselves'

https://www.vice.com...aking-new-tools



'A Giant Chalk Figure Is Finally Starting to Make Some Sense

And we have snails to thank for that.

[...] traveled to a hilltop in Dorset, England, to bag a giant. They sliced into his elbows and feet, then took bits of him back to their labs in bags and metal tubes. No actual behemoth was harmed in the process, because the Cerne Abbas Giant is a geoglyph—a large artwork emblazoned into the landscape. The 180-foot-tall figure was created by scouring away grass to reveal the white chalk beneath, then packing the trenches with more chalk quarried nearby. Thanks largely to his 26-foot phallus, the giant has become a beloved fertility icon. According to folklore, couples who couple on his crotch will successfully conceive.

[...] using a combination of laser beams and snails, scientists have established that the giant was born between A.D. 700 and A.D. 1100 in the late Saxon or early medieval period. The results were totally unexpected because no other chalk figures date from that time[...] “We were all wrong … and that’s tremendously exciting.”

[...] most other geoglyphs[...] generally date from the 1500s or later. [...]

“During that period [1500s], there was a big mythology about the role of giants in Britain’s origin myth,” [...] “That led to giants being depicted in other [chalk] hill figures, which are described in historical documents but which have now vanished.” According to these legends, giants were the original rulers of Albion—an ancient name for Britain that may mean “white land” and refer to the chalky geology.

[...]

The new dates have sparked research efforts to uncover who the giant represents. Some researchers think the nearby Cerne Abbey was established in A.D. 987 to convert locals who worshipped a pagan god named Heil or Helith. So the figure might depict that Anglo-Saxon deity[...]

Interestingly, historic documents from Cerne Abbey don’t mention the giant until 1694. [...] hypothesize that the geoglyph was forgotten and grassed over for hundreds of years before people saw a shadowy shape on the hillside and decided to reawaken the giant.

[...]


People have been chalking, rechalking, and changing the giant for centuries[...] the figure may have once held a cloak and a severed head, and was emasculated and remasculated in Victorian times. More recently, it received a COVID-appropriate face mask.'

https://www.theatlan...s-giant/619406/

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 11 July 2021 - 11:07 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

[Aptorian]

 O'connor.jpg (91.13K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Tsundoku]

They're funny because they're true.

https://www.escape.c...6772e9692269d38

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

One leg in the toxic water ( / the future)....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'a typeface called Impossible Type'





https://kottke.org/2...TDYn2TSVoRgrwCA

[Malankazooie]

The Air Force kit today in the annual game against Navy is quite something.

Spoiler tagged due to size.

Spoiler

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Not even the animals play in Philly [Philthadelphia]'

'I see his house arrest bracelet… you better get back on the stoop crow b4 that starts blinking'

https://www.facebook...71021866253885/

Next up is bald eagle with a pistol?... talons to hold, and beak to bite the trigger.... Go eagles! Go forth and murder!

[worry]

Well in Queens NYC they arrested a violent rooster recently and one of his accomplices: https://www.avclub.c...tack-1847783078

This post has been edited by worry: 02 October 2021 - 11:22 PM

[Malankazooie]

[Aptorian]

 RDT_20211207_1608423975926114615435954.jpg (504.41K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

[Malankazooie]

[Malankazooie]

[Aptorian]

Malankazooie, on 03 January 2022 - 04:35 AM, said:

Saw that guy on Reddit. Apparently he took his equipment off during a match, threw it in the stands and went streaking.

This is a list of this guy's insane behavior from r/NFL. It just goes on and on:

Quote

For those of you unfamiliar with the NFL, /r/NFL has been keeping track of this guy's antics. This is the list:

•Kicked out of Florida International University after fighting a security guard

•⁠"Don't touch me. I'm the franchise"

• ⁠His second year in the league he took a personal stretch limo to a charity event, had them open every single expensive bottle of wine, rejected it. Refused to pay for it (charity, remember), then left. -credit Nduguu77

• ⁠Threw fits over not getting enough targets

• ⁠Drove 100 down McKnight Road in Pittsburgh, which has a 45 MPH speed limit

• ⁠Trashed a condo and threw furniture out a window 14th floor window, which almost hit some people, notably a child

• ⁠Killed a home aquarium full of piranhas and refused to pay the man who installed the tank

• ⁠Refused to play week 17 for the Steelers

• ⁠Dyed his mustache blonde

• ⁠Refused to pay a chef because he thought he threatened him by placing a fish head in the freezer (the fish head was saved to make a soup)

• ⁠Farted on a doctor

• ⁠Demanded a trade from the Steelers

• ⁠Became "Mr. Big Chest"

• ⁠Threw a fit over Juju winning team MVP and trashed him on social media

• ⁠(Allegedly) nixed a trade that would've sent him to the Bills

• ⁠Showed up to Raiders training camp in a hot air balloon

• ⁠Held out and refused to show up to training camp because the NFL would not approve his helmet because it was too old for their safety standards

• ⁠Froze his feet

• ⁠Tried to paint over his old helmet, hoping no one would notice I guess

• ⁠Acquired a newer version of the same model of helmet, which the NFL refused to let him use

• ⁠Picked out a new helmet and finally showed up to the Raiders

• ⁠Got fined by the Raiders for not attending camp

• ⁠Tweeted the fines

• ⁠Tried to fight Mike Mayock, called him a cracker, had to be held back by Vontaze Burfict, then punted a football down the practice field and said "fine me for that"

• ⁠Got fined for that

• ⁠Released a video where he used audio of Jon Gruden, who didn't know he was being recorded, which is illegal in California (full disclosure, Gruden has said he gave permission, but the generally accepted theory is that he said that in the hope that it would help get him to show up to the facility and not alienate him)

• ⁠Demanded a release from the Raiders

• ⁠Was released

• ⁠"GRANDMA I’M FREEEEEE! FLY LIKE A FREEEEE!"

• ⁠Made a lot of crazy tweets saying stuff like 'Devil is a lie', a proverb about burning down a village... he made a lot of crazy tweets around this time is the point here

• ⁠Liked a tweet about Mayock getting raped in the ass

• ⁠Signed with the Patriots

• ⁠Moved in with Tom Brady

• ⁠The sexual assault allegations came out (the one where he's getting sued)

• ⁠The sexual harassment allegations came out (the one where he's not getting sued)

• ⁠Threatened the woman not suing him in a group text that included his lawyer and had a picture of her kids in the text

• ⁠Got released by the Patriots after one week

• ⁠Went off on a tweet storm and said a lot of crazy shit about a lot of people, and was supportive of people sending threats to the writer of the article detailing the sexual harassment allegations

• ⁠Said he was done with the NFL

• ⁠Went back to college via online classes

• ⁠Tried to outsource his homework to Twitter

• ⁠Wants to come back to the NFL

• ⁠Filed several grievances to try and get more than $40 million from the Raider's and Patriots

• ⁠Was ordered to show up for a deposition regarding trashing the condo

• ⁠Was accused of "reprehensible behavior" during the deposition Note: I cut the specifics about the deposition so I could fit this as a single comment. You can read more about it here if you're interested, because it, like everything else, is nuts

• ⁠Said that the Patriots have to pay him anyway, so they might as well let him play

• ⁠Tweeted a couple of bizarre tweets about the Raiders using him for HBO ratings and the Patriots trying to steal his stuff and kept using this weird chicken based metaphor

• ⁠Tried out for the Saints and brought an entourage and film crew to shoot a music video with him when specifically told not to do that

• ⁠Called out Robert Kraft for his rub and tug massage session in Florida

• ⁠Starting training for a boxing match with Logan Paul

• ⁠Tweeted "No more white woman 2020"

• ⁠The attorney representing him in the suit involving the condo quit

• ⁠Used a bunch of slurs and profane language towards cops in an Instagram video he posted

• ⁠A police youth football league cut ties with him and returned a donation after the release of the video saying there was a "irreparable rift" between the department and AB

• ⁠Threw a bag of gummy candy dicks at the cops in a video he posted

• ⁠Got dropped by his agent

• ⁠Was involved in a disputed with movers at his home where he allegedly threw rocks at the movers and moving vans. He is currently being investigated for battery by the police.

• ⁠His trainer was arrested and he is still a suspect in the battery case.

• ⁠Warrant issued for the arrest of AB.

• ⁠AB turns himself in to Broward Country Jail wearing this suit

• ⁠Rumors spread about AB signing with Tampa or Seattle

• ⁠AB announces his retirement (for what I believe is the third time, it's hard to find a good record of the rest of them)

• ⁠Two days later AB wants to play again and is asking for the league to wrap up it's investigation

• ⁠The NFL announces an eight game suspension for AB

• ⁠AB signs with the Buccaneers on a one-year deal

• ⁠Before he signed with the Buccaneers AB was accused of destroying a surveillance camera at a Florida gated community, throwing bike at a security-guard shack, and is not charged because HOA president "feared" retaliation, per police report

• ⁠AB is under investigation by the NFL for the bike throwing incident

• ⁠Allegedly acquired fake covid-19 card

• confirmed to have acquired a fake covid-19 card and subsequently suspended for three games

• Removed jersey and pads and threw them in the stands before exiting the games verse the Jets.

[Tsundoku]

Just a handful of those incidents would get most people fired and/or jailed. Athletes really are a protected species.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Meet the worm with a jaw of metal




Bristle worms are odd-looking, spiky, segmented worms with super-strong jaws. Researchers have discovered that the jaws contain metal. It appears that biological processes could one day be used to manufacture metals.


[...]





Fireworm, a type of bristle worm'