Day: April 18, 2018

WATCH This Freaky Deepfake Video Of Obama Trashing Trump

Source: https://goo.gl/BGYGJH
Barack Obama has finally ditched the slick politicking and come right out and said what he really thinks about Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and who the real hero of “Black Panther” is — and it’s exactly what you thought he’d say. Except that it’s a “deepfake” by comedian Jordan Peele who wants you to know that we live in dangerous times, where sinister, tech-savvy figures can create fake news with a few apps and a couple of days of processing.

Here’s the freaky and kind of funny deepfake video by Peele, in which Obama calls Trump a “total and complete dipsh**,” smacks Carson, and announces that “Killmonger was right” about the need for black people to rise up and slay their oppressors, or something (warning: language):
The video was published by BuzzFeed, which provides some more information on the new, increasingly easy face- and voice-swapping technology that will further erode people’s trust in what they see online:

Technology to trick our eyes and ears is advancing rapidly. Teams in Germany are working on Face2Face, the type of face- and voice-swapping technology used to create the video above. Software giant Adobe is creating a “Photoshop for audio” that makes it easy to edit and manipulate what someone has said, as is a Montreal startup called Lyrebird. After you’ve selectively edited someone’s words, you could take that audio and use tech developed at the University of Washington to generate a video of the very same person speaking those words, just to make it fully convincing.

Peele used FakeApp, a free tool that people have used to retroactively make Nic Cage the star of “Indiana Jones” and make celebrities the stars of porn videos. BuzzFeed describes the process:

Part of the process for creating this video involved taking an original video of Barack Obama and pasting Jordan Peele’s mouth into it. It looked really bad and clumsy at first. But things got remarkably better the longer FakeApp was left to process a more believable amalgamation of Obama’s head and Peele’s mouth. That took roughly 56 hours and was overseen by a video effects professional.

So will deepfakes result in the “infocalypse” BuzzFeed and Peele are sounding the alarm about? Will the Russians fool large swaths of stupid Americans with fake videos of our political leaders saying outrageous stuff to direct our politics? Or, worse yet, will Nic Cage eventually star in every formerly good film ever made? Stay tuned and stay skeptical.

BREAKING Hall Of Fame Athlete Just Passed Away…

Source: https://goo.gl/tx6duk
We are saddened to announced that WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino passed away at age 82.

Sammartino, a WWE Hall of Famer, was known as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of any era and one of the ultimate good guys in the ring, Fox News reports.

Sammartino grew up in Abruzzi, Italy and lived under Nazi occupation during World War II. He and his mother hid out in Valla Rocca during the occupation and eventually joined his father in Pittsburgh in 1950.

“The Italian Superman” started to hit the weights in the late 50’s and caught the eye of Vincent J. McMahon – one of the pioneers of American professional wrestling.

Sammartino quickly became a fan favorite after defeating Buddy Rogers in 43 seconds at Madison Square Garden in 1963 to become the second-ever WWE champion.
WWE reports that Bruno held the WWE Championship for nearly eight years — by far the longest reign of all time, and a record for all professional wrestling champions, no matter the organization. A household name all over the country, the beloved hero defended his title in legendary rivalries against WWE Hall of Famers Killer Kowalski, Gorilla Monsoon and George “The Animal” Steele.

In early 1968, Sammartino headlined the first wrestling event at the brand-new Madison Square Garden, just eight days after it opened. The Garden truly was the house that Bruno built, as he sold it out an astounding 187 times. When he lost the title to Ivan Koloff in 1971, grown men in the crowd were seen weeping, but on Dec. 10, 1973, Sammartino became the first two-time WWE Champion and held the title for an additional three-and-a-half years.

On Aug. 9, 1980, Sammartino defeated his former protégé, Larry Zbyszko, inside a steel cage at New York City’s Shea Stadium in front of more than 35,000 people. The heated grudge match broke box-office records for wrestling events, and Bruno retired from the ring the following year.
Bruno returned to WWE in the mid-80s as a broadcaster alongside Mr. McMahon and as a mentor for his son David, who was just beginning his grappling career. Now known as The Living Legend, Bruno also engaged in several rivalries with a generation of WWE’s greatest villains, including “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and The Honky Tonk Man.

The star power and influence of Sammartino was exemplified by the fact that he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was the 188th and final time that Sammartino headlined and sold out Madison Square Garden.
Sammartino is survived by his three sons and four grandchildren.

Rest in peace my brother and thanks for the memories.