Mike Bloomberg came on the democratic campaign trail late but his presence has certainly been made and not necessarily for the right reasons. Hundreds of social media campaigners in California are being offered $2,500 dollars a month to post on social media accounts in support of Mike Bloomberg. However useful money is for Bloomberg it’s not buying him loyalty with these social media influencers.

Bloomberg’s coalition has been asked to spend up to 30 hours a week using various forms of media to engage with their respected followers in hopes to secure California in the democratic primary. However it seems most of the newly acquired army of social media pages are strictly there for monetary reasons. The only qualifications for the job are to have social media accounts and know how to use them. According to business insider one of Bloomberg’s social media operatives said their friends had thought that their social media accounts have been hacked and one comment read, “I hope you’re being paid for this”.

The campaign blurs the lines between a grassroots movement and political advertising but the message aren’t being received the way Bloomberg would have hoped. The goal was to meet voters on all platforms but the lack of true support is seeping into the fray. When twitter realized users were posting an identical tweet from Bloomberg’s campaign they quickly suspended the accounts for platform manipulation and spam.  The copied tweet was then later the butt of a joke across twitter sparking memes such as a photo shopped Bloomberg throwing money from a helicopter. All in all Bloomberg has spent over $409 million of his personal cash on his own campaign with more wasted money surely to come.

Image: https://gawker.com/helpless-mayor-bloomberg-cant-stop-himself-from-gettin-1350568789

Article: https://www.businessinsider.com/bloombergs-2500-month-campaign-fee-is-attracting-lukewarm-workers-2020-2

 In this article it explains how Snapchat is launching a new feature which is called “Here for you” which helps people who are dealing with mental illness or emotional crisis. It also gives people insight on how they can help their friends who are coping with any of these things. It will be coming out in the upcoming months. It will include different safety resources from professionals when people search for topics that have to do with mental illness—for example, anxiety, depression, stress, and a lot more. If someone were to google depression, it would come up with all different shows and episodes to educate people and teach you how to cope and handle it. It shows what you can do and that there are many resources and ways to handle it. It talks about all of these mental illnesses and emotional crisis in a constructive way. Social media has become such a significant aspect in people’s lives today, and there are about 186 million Snapchat users today. The number of people with mental illnesses is also increasing, so by having this platform and educating people when they are young, they will know how to handle everything. I thought this was an excellent article, and I believe what Snapchat is doing is fantastic. Millions of people suffer from mental illnesses and emotional crises every day and having this feature on a platform that people use hours upon hours a day is beneficial and can tell people they are not alone.

While “Parasite” has won four awards, including Best Picture at the U.S. Academy Awards, a global craze has been brewing, raising allegations that an Indian filmmaker plagiarized his film.

CJ Entertainment, the distributor of “Parasite,” said Wednesday that it has not received any contact from Indian film producers who claim to plagiarize “Parasite.” Nothing has been said for the distributor and the production company.

Earlier on Thursday, Indian media, India Express mentioned that Indian filmmaker, PL Tenapan had reported preparations for the lawsuit, claiming that Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” plagiarized his film.

PL Tenaphan claims that “Parasite” is similar to his 1999 work “Min-sara Canna.” “Min-Sara Canna” is a romantic comedy about a man who goes into the rich woman’s home as a driver to see a woman he loves. The main character’s family also works as a servant and cook in the family, keeping their status secret.

PL Tenaphan said, ”Parasite” took our movie plot. Our movie inspired “Parasite,” he said, adding that he will appoint an international lawyer to discuss the charges.

“This debate will bring international attention about the film to people,” said Ravikumar, who directed “Min-Sara Canna.” “I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m glad ‘Parasite’ inspired by ‘Min-Sara Canna’ won an Oscar. The plagiarism suit is up to the producer,” he said in a cautious stance.

https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/regional-cinema/story/parasite-plagiarism-row-minsara-kanna-producer-pl-thenappan-sends-intimation-mail-1647884-2020-02-19

With more than 1,300 dead and approximately 60,000 infected, the coronavirus has left China amid a public health crisis. The virus has led businesses across the country to close their doors, affecting China’s domestic economy as well as the global economy. A recent article by CNN spotlights one of the industries most affected by the crisis, the entertainment industry, mainly focusing on the Hollywood film industry.

Disney’s long-awaited release of its live-action remake of Mulan is set to hit theaters in North America on March 27th. Mulan tells the story of a female Chinese warrior, fighting to protect her country from invaders. Disney invested over $200 million in the remake, expecting it to be wildly successful among Chinese box offices. China is the second-largest movie market in the world, the United States taking the top spot. Disney anticipated that the release of Mulan would break records across China. The success of the film now depends on how the country recovers from this crisis and how quickly businesses across the country can operate as usual. Given the fact China is the second-largest movie market in the world, a large portion of ticket sales depends on Chinese box offices. A film cannot gross millions or even billions worldwide without help from Chinese moviegoers. Although Mulan could still perform well on a global scale, with China out of the equation, for now, its success is limited.  

Although the crisis in China has raised concerns among countless studios set to release films in China, the case of Mulan is different. Disney created Mulan to be a “tailor-made success in China.” This is likely due to the fact the storyline of Mulan has “significant roots in Chinese lore.” This factor has made China a crucial player in the film’s release strategy and subsequent success following release. Alongside, Disney has built extensive infrastructure across China in recent years through theme parks and merchandising. Disney was hoping for significant pay off with the release of Mulan. The film features an international cast and revised storyline, making it more “straightforward” than the original animated version of the film. Given the cultural relevance and family-friendly nature of the film, Disney was expecting massive success, as family films are among the most successful films among Chinese audiences. Just last year, China contributed over $9 million to international box office sales. This continued disruption across the Chinese film market has the potential to affect studios beyond just Disney alone. Studios must now consider how to achieve success in releases with China out of the equation.

Facial recognition software is no longer a hypothetical instrument used in the future it’s here and now. London and Chinese police have already begun to implement the software in real time in their respected countries closed-captioned TV network. The software is able to track the whereabouts of any individual that it targets. Facial recognition is a huge topic in today’s politics and cities like San Francisco have already banned the technology for police use and other government agencies. This new technology is problematic however covering your face is a simple hack to beat the software. Wearing a facemask in public isn’t exactly practical either. To combat this artist and fashion designers are creating new ways to fool the software.

One method to beat facial recognition is anti-facial recognition makeup. The makeup design template was developed by artist Adam Harvey as a way to promote conversations about being under surveillance in public spaces. The make up makes the individual stand out in reality but hides their identity digitally by blending lines, shapes, and colors that create a façade to hide ones face from recognition software.  This method won’t stop all facial recognition software however. For instance your Iphone and other technologies use an infrared dot-mapping grid that can easily discern your face no matter what makeup tricks you use. So to fight this researches from china and Indiana University have developed a hat that emits an infrared light pattern that completed disrupts the infrared recognition software.

In order to beat facial recognition software you have to know what you are up against. As soon as the software can be beaten the developers will make updates and fortify their technology. The cat and mouse game of facial recognition is in full swing.

Article: https://www.freethink.com/articles/anti-facial-recognition

image: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/01/privacy-campaigners-dazzle-camouflage-met-police-surveillance

AI such as the Amazon ‘Alexa’ or the Google Home has become a common part of the every day American household. I even have one in my apartment, not necessarily that my roommates and I wanted one, but that it was given to us as a free prize. These devices are being handed out and distributed through millions of homes world wide. When it finally came out that this tech is listening in on our conversations and recording it, people became much more weary of what they had to say around them, or buying them in general. Now, years since this information came out, Ben Zhao and his wife Heather Zheng, both computer science professors, came up with a device that would make the Alexa unable to hear your conversations after having their own debate on whether or not that should have an Alexa in the house.

Their device made in the form of a bracelet emits ultrasonic signals when it is turned on by its user. This creates a sound impossible for humans to hear but is still able to be picked up by and recording microphones so that instead of hearing what people are saying, it can only hear the high pitch noise coming from the bracelet. People have created tech to block out Amazon speakers where you cover the speaker with the device to block out sounds from being recorded. To Zheng and Zhao, they believe that a device to keep people safe from being recorded should be portable so that people can move about their daily lives without having the fear of their conversations being recorded. In the wake of almost total surveillance, inventors are coming out each year with new way to combat the invasion of their own privacy. Since 2012, people have come up with eyeglasses to blur their face from security cameras, clothing to mask heat signatures from drones, and even coats to jam radio waves from people trying to collect information from your phone. There is no doubt that with each passing year, people will become more and more innovation to prove their privacy should remain intact despite the growing amount of surveillance tech.

Remember those days where holographic tech assistants seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi movie? Well, would ya look at the time because those freaky Black Mirror days might be among us after-all. AI might soon hit its next level with Neon’s ‘Artificial Humans’.

A company backed by Samsung has recently revealed plans for a project of artificial humans and that are geared up to become our professors, yoga instructors, and even BFFs. I don’t know about you guys, but while these techy advancements totally make me twitch, I’ll admit the idea is just trippy enough to keep me curious about how far a project like this could go.

Additionally it makes me question how well communication could be translated between a human-to-machine relationship. We’ve all seen HER right? It didn’t work out too well there. But, if we’re gonna dive into the future of cyber beings.. I wonder if Scarlett Johannson would be down to voice our real-life AI friends, too.. Hm..

SO, is this weird?
Is this rad?
Is this… happening? Survey says: maybe, maybe not.
The producers admit that the tech still needs work before it takes over the world— I MEAN, innocently joins our homes and social circles.

I dunno, the whole thing is kinda #yikes but, I won’t totally diss anything that’ll bring me closer to fulfilling my Phil of The Future fantasies. #MoveOverSiri #AlexaWHO