It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
A lucky local has photographed a rare, white kookaburra in Wynnum, Queensland this week.
The birds with the leucistic genetic trait, which affects colour and skin pigmentation, are most commonly found near Wollongong.
It's believed the white coloured animals struggle to survive in the wild.
GOING OVERBOARD
Canada’s Niagara region declares state of emergency ahead of eclipse tourists
SAT, 30 MAR, 2024 -
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER
Ontario’s Niagara Region has declared a state of emergency as it prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for the solar eclipse in early April.
The total solar eclipse on April 8 will be the first to touch the province since 1979, and Niagara Falls was declared by National Geographic to be one of the best places to see it.
The city is in the path of totality, where the moon will entirely block the sun’s rays for a few minutes.
The regional municipality of Niagara is proactively invoking a state of emergency to prepare for the event (Carlos Osorio/The Canadian Press via AP)
Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati said earlier in March that he expects the most visitors his city has ever seen in a single day.
The regional municipality of Niagara is proactively invoking a state of emergency to prepare for the event.
The declaration announced on Thursday sets in motion some additional planning tools to prepare for the day, which could involve major traffic jams, heavier demands on emergency services and cell phone network overloads.
Towns, cities in path of total solar eclipse
gear up for a few exciting moments
The spectacle will move millions of people around to view the event and inject money into local economies. 1 of 7 |
A composite image shows the moon covering the sun during an annular "Ring of Fire" solar eclipse near Bluff, Utah, in October.
March 29 (UPI) -- Cities and towns in the path of a total solar eclipse April 8 expect throngs of visitors who will view a short-lived event, inject a great deal of money into the local economy and hopefully won't create chaos during their stay.
This first total eclipse across parts of the United States in nearly seven years will start at sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, pass through Mexico and cross a swath of the United States from Texas to Maine.
Major cities that will experience the total eclipse are Texas cities San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, followed by Little Rock, Ark., Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo before, being seen in Montreal and the Newfoundland coast near Gander, Canada.
Scores of small towns are in the path, as well, some equipped better than others to handle anticipated crowds and their need to buy gas, eat food and go to the restroom. Medical personnel will be standing by, and police agencies will be out in force,
Why are so many people intrigued by this eclipse that will be seen in at least 15 states? One key reason is that next solar eclipse in the United States is 20 years away, though several others can be observed before that in other parts of the world.
Depending on weather and location, the eclipse could be viewed -- with a safety recommendation to wear protective eyewear -- for 2 to 4 minutes. Many parts of Texas -- such as Dallas, Austin, Waco -- will be in the path of totality, with the moon expected to begin covering the sun at 12:23 p.m. CDT.
Bell County -- north of Austin -- has declared a state of emergency ahead of the eclipse in anticipation of a large visitor influx in a state that has not seen a total solar eclipse for 146 years.
State officials said they expect a heavy traffic increase as spectators make their way to locations along 480 miles of roadway that will be in the path of totality.
"Many Texans will be able to see a total solar eclipse from their back yards," said Matthew Heinze, a Texas Department of Transportation official, who added that projections indicate nearly 1 million people will travel to or within the state that day.
Arkansas expects a lot of attention, too. The state has not been in the path of a total solar eclipse since 1918, and state officials expect more than 1 one million visitors to areas where the eclipse can best be seen. That includes Little Rock, which expects more than 100,000 visitors.
In New England, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine expect to provide a boost to local economies, and say the region will potentially see "hundreds of thousands of visitors" for the eclipse, NBC Boston reported.
School officials in Maine either adjusted class schedules for the day or canceled classes, citing traffic and other safety-related concerns. The University of Maine will send 10 students 90,000 feet up in a hot air balloon to obtain data and livestream the eclipse.
But skepticism exists in Canada about the chances of having a good view of the eclipse, with some saying the best way to view it would be to livestream it.
"The path of the shadow passes through very little of Canada," Leigh Hunt Palmer, a professor emeritus of astronomy at Simon Fraser University, told the Vancouver Sun. "It just grazes Canada, actually."
In Ohio, Fox 8 News in Cleveland reported an assortment of events being planned, including viewing parties, festivals, museum shows and restaurants opening that usually are closed on a Monday.
Four western Pennsylvania counties adjacent to Ohio will be in the path of totality with the remainder of the "Keystone State" expected to be in the 99% to 88.65% magnitude of the eclipse. The last time that state was in the path of a total solar eclipse was 218 years ago, the state Department of Education said.
Back in Texas, Travis Houston, director of Dallas' Office of Emergency Management, told KDFW he started to plan for the eclipse a year ago. His biggest concern is to keep traffic moving.
"Making sure we understand how to keep ingress and egress active for first responders. How do we take care of stranded motorists, if that is an issue, and then how do we communicate to the public don't stop on the road to look at the eclipse?" Houston said.
He has encouraged employers to treat April 8 like a snow day, with only essential workers going to the office.
While officials throughout the country expect to be prepared for vehicular control, one town has a unique issue.
After the Great Northern Paper Co. closed its mill 10 years ago, East Millinocket, Maine, reset a tri-color signal to a yellow blinker for through traffic on State Route 157 and a red blinker on the intersecting roadway.
Now, said Gail Fanjoy, president of the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce, the town is exploring how to restore the full traffic light ahead of eclipse weekend.
AI company reveals new technology which can clone a person’s voice
OpenAI has revealed new technology which can clone a person’s voice
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
By Associated Press Reporters
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is getting into the voice assistant business and showing off new technology that can clone a person’s voice, but says it will not yet release it publicly due to safety concerns.
The artificial intelligence company unveiled its new Voice Engine technology on Friday, just over a week after filing a trademark application for the name.
The company claims that it can recreate a person’s voice with just 15 seconds of recording of that person talking.
We recognise that generating speech that resembles people's voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year
OpenAI statement
OpenAI says it plans tpreviewo it with early testers “but not widely release this technology at this time” because of the dangers of misuse.
“We recognise that generating speech that resembles people’s voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year,” the San Francisco company said in a statement.
In New Hampshire, authorities are investigating robocalls sent to thousands of voters just before the presidential primary that featured an AI-generated voice mimicking President Joe Biden.
A number of start-up companies already sell voice-cloning technology, some of which is accessible to the public or for select business customers such as entertainment studios.
OpenAI says early Voice Engine testers have agreed to not impersonate a person without their consent and to disclose that the voices are AI-generated.
The company, best known for its chatbot and the image-generator DALL-E, took a similar approach in announcing but not widely releasing its video-generator Sora.
However, a trademark application filed on March 19 shows that OpenAI likely aims to get into the business of speech recognition and digital voice assistant.
Eventually, improving such technology could help OpenAI compete with the likes of other voice products such as Amazon’s Alexa.
OpenAI knows you're worried about its new AI model that can copy your voice
OpenAI says it's aware of the dangers of using AI-generated voice tools.
The AI firm revealed details about its "Voice Engine" tool, which hasn't fully launched.
The company listed its security steps — and wouldn't confirm if the model will even be widely released.
OpenAI knows that AI-generated voice tools can be a sketchy business.
In a blog post sharing the early test phase results of its new synthetic voice tool, the artificial intelligence company addressed concerns about the use of AI to replicate human voices, especially in an election year.
OpenAI's "Voice Engine" tool, which the company says it first developed in late 2022, uses a 15-second audio clip of a real person's voice to create an eerily realistic, human-sounding replica of that voice.
And users can make that voice say anything — even in other languages.
The tool is not yet available to the public, and OpenAI says it is still considering "whether and how to deploy this technology at scale."
"We recognize that generating speech that resembles people's voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year," OpenAI wrote in its blog post. "We are engaging with U.S. and international partners from across government, media, entertainment, education, civil society, and beyond to ensure we are incorporating their feedback as we build."
OpenAI currently uses the tool to power ChatGPT's "read aloud" features, as well as the company's text-to-speech API.
At the end of last year, OpenAI started expanding the tool externally, working with what it described as a "small group of trusted partners" to test out Voice Engine for things like children's educational materials, language translation, and medical voice recovery, the company said in its post
OpenAI stressed that its partner organizations must obey strict policies to use Voice Engine, like getting consent from every individual being impersonated and informing listeners that the voice is AI-generated.
"We are taking a cautious and informed approach to a broader release due to the potential for synthetic voice misuse," the company wrote. "We hope to start a dialogue on the responsible deployment of synthetic voices, and how society can adapt to these new capabilities."
Though the company said it's not yet sure whether it will ever release the tool to the general public, it pushed policymakers and developers to take steps to prevent dangerous misuse of the tech it was developing.
For example, OpenAI suggested establishing a "no-go voice list" to prevent the nonconsensual replication of prominent voices, like politicians or celebrities.
The company also recommended that banks stop using voice-based security authentication and that researchers develop techniques to track whether a voice is real or fake. Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.
Robot dog disguised as coyote lands job scaring birds away from runway
LOOKS MORE LIKE A GRASSHOPPER OR LOCUST
Aurora, with handler Ryan Marlow, will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Fairbanks airport (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
By Associated Press Reporters
A headless robot about the size of a labrador dog will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska’s second largest airport, a state agency has said.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has named the new robot Aurora and said it will be based at the Fairbanks airport to “enhance and augment safety and operations”, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The transportation department released a video of the robot climbing rocks, going up stairs and doing something akin to dancing while flashing green lights.
Those dancing skills will be put to use this fall during the migratory bird season when Aurora imitates predator-like movements to keep birds and other wildlife from settling near plane infields.
The sole purpose of this is to act as a predator and allow for us to invoke that response in wildlife without having to use other means
Ryan Marlow, robot handler
The plan is to have Aurora patrol an outdoor area near the runway every hour in an attempt to prevent harmful encounters between planes and wildlife, said Ryan Marlow, a programme manager with the transportation department.
The robot can be disguised as a coyote or a fox by changing out replaceable panels, he said.
“The sole purpose of this is to act as a predator and allow for us to invoke that response in wildlife without having to use other means,” Mr Marlow told legislators last week.
The panels would not be hyper-realistic, and Marlow said the agency decided against using animal fur to make sure Aurora remained waterproof.
The idea of using a robot came after officials rejected a plan to use flying drones spraying a repellent including grape juice.
Previous deterrent efforts have included officials releasing pigs at a lake near the Anchorage airport in the 1990s, with the hope they would eat waterfowl eggs near plane landing areas.
The test period in Fairbanks will also see how effective of a deterrent Aurora would be with larger animals and to see how moose and bears would respond to the robot, Mr Marlow told the Anchorage.
Fairbanks “is leading the country with wildlife mitigation through the use of Aurora. Several airports across the country have implemented robots for various tasks such as cleaning, security patrols, and customer service,” agency spokesperson Danielle Tessen said in an email to the Associated Press.
In Alaska, wildlife service teams currently are used to scare birds and other wildlife away from runways with loud sounds, sometimes made with paintball guns.
Last year, there were 92 animal strikes near airports across Alaska, including 10 in Fairbanks, according to an Federal Aviation Administration database.
Most strikes resulted in no damage to the aircraft, but Marlow said the encounters can be expensive and dangerous in the rare instance when a bird is sucked into an engine, potentially causing a crash.
An AWACS jet crashed in 1995 when it hit a flock of geese, killing 24 people at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.
If the test proves successful, Mr Marlow said the agency could send similar robots to smaller airports in Alaska, which could be more cost effective than hiring human deterrent teams.
Aurora, which can be controlled from a table, computer or on an automated schedule, will always have a human handler with it, he said. It can navigate through rain or snow.
The robot from Boston Dynamics cost about 70,000 US dollars (£55,000) and was paid for with a federal grant.
FEMICIDE UK
There are over 2 million victims of domestic abuse yet prosecutions are dropping. Why?
Despite an increase in domestic abuse crimes in England and wales , the number of prosecutions has gone down (Picture: Getty/Vanessa Redmond)
Olga Pramanik used to sleep in her clothes and shoes on the sofa, so that if she needed to escape from her husband in a hurry, she could.
‘He had always been controlling but when we moved to the UK from Switzerland in 2016 and I wanted to get a job, everything got worse,’ the 40-year-old cleaner from London tells Metro.
When her husband, Kaushik Pramanik, became physically abusive in 2022, the authorities got involved. However, although he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 weeks in jail for coercive and controlling behaviour and 10 weeks for assault by beating, the sentence was suspended for one year.
It meant that despite years of abuse, Olga’s abusive husband walked free from court. And although he is banned from contacting her due to a restraining order, without any sort of prison sentence, he arguably has more freedom now than she did while living with him.
It is estimated that 2.1 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023, according to the Office of National Statistics’ Crime Survey.
Yet, despite nearly a 50% increase in such crimes since 2018, prosecutions have reduced by 42% in the same period, according to domestic abuse charity Advance.
Olga experience nine years of abuse at the hands of her husband – who, although was found guilty, walked free from court (Picture: Owner supplied)
As part of their recent report, Her Story, Her Justice, survivors are speaking out about the impact of such lenient sentencing, with one sharing: ‘So many women are too scared to press charges, and then you see someone getting three months for ABH, it just isn’t going to deter him from doing it again.’
Now, the charity is calling for tougher sentencing for domestic abuse, urging that it reflects the severity of the crime.
During Olga’s abusive relationship, the mother-of-four set up a secret bank account and got her first phone, which she knew he’d disapprove of.
Her plan was to get a job as a cleaner so she could be financially independent, but when Pramanik discovered the phone, he tried to confiscate it. He also took Olga’s work clothes and cleaning products and threw them behind the wire fence of a nearby electricity substation where she couldn’t retrieve them.
One survivor of domestic abuse told the charity Advance: ‘So many women are too scared to press charges, and then you see someone getting three months for ABH, it just isn’t going to deter him from doing it again.'(Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
When Olga ignored his demands to stop working, he told the street’s WhatsApp group that his wife was a prostitute and put her number on an adult website so she got unwanted calls throughout the night.
He warned Olga that if she reported him, no-one would believe her. With her confidence at rock bottom, she gave in and stopped working.
Even so, Pramanik still terrorised his wife and even called the police to report her for sex work.
At her wits end, on Halloween night 2022, Olga told her husband she wanted a divorce. In response, Pramanik hit her across the face multiple times with his mobile phone in front of their children.
‘I was worried my jaw was broken,’ she remembers. ‘I couldn’t speak, my lip was split, my jaw was shaking and I was in so much pain. He hit me so coldly, with no emotion. I was shocked and my daughter had seen it happen. I was worried I would have to go to hospital, but I didn’t want to leave my children with him. The doctors would ask what happened and I didn’t know how to explain.’
An estimated 2.1 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023, a 50% increase on 2018 (Picture: Getty Images)
However, that wasn’t the end of the abuse. Pramanik would throw stones at his wife and chase her down the garden with a stick. On other occasions he would come to her in bed and silently – so the neighbours wouldn’t hear – shove her, hold her hand, try to kiss her or take her phone. Often, she would end up sleeping downstairs on the sofa, so she could get out to the garden if she was in danger.
‘I was afraid to sleep at night and would try to sleep during the day,’ Olga recalls. ‘I would get by on four hours. I was tired and didn’t know how it was going to end. I could only foresee bad things.’
Two weeks after Halloween, Pramanik was arrested following her neighbour’s report to the police. Although, her husband didn’t spend any time in jail, Olga feels that the fact that he got such a lengthy suspended sentence is at least a step in the right direction.
‘I didn’t know what to expect from the sentencing, but I know prisons are full and my husband had a good barrister,’ she says. ‘But at least he’s following the rules of his restraining order. ‘That said, no-one should live in fear. Sentencing is important; it needs to send the message out that perpetrators of violence will be punished.’
While Olga is waiting for the divorce to be finalised, 33-year-old Anna* has ten years to recover from the horrific violence she endured at the hands of her ex before he walks free.
Anna’s abuser Ben used emotional manipulation to get into her head (Picture: Getty Images)
The couple met in 2021 and clicked straight away. ‘There were no red flags at the beginning; he just made me feel really special,’ she tells Metro.
Then the abuse began. The first assault happened after a jealous Ben* asked to look at Anna’s phone. When she refused he bit her face in anger.
The mother-of-two remembers: ‘My face was bleeding. He got a tissue, wiped the blood and told me: “Look what you made me do” Then he walked out.’
Anna was too scared to report him. ‘I thought – if he could do that to me about my phone, what would he do if I went to the police?’ she explains.
Instead, she stayed in her mum’s house, while a repentant Ben called her multiple times.
‘He got in my head,’ she admits. ‘He told me he loved me like he’d never loved anyone before. That’s what abusers do.’
Ben moved back in, but Anna lived in constant fear of his bubbling rage. ‘Anything he wanted or anything he asked, I would do,’ she remembers.
Anna’s partner took her phone and isolated her from family and friends and controlled her every move (Picture: Getty Images)
Soon he became oppressive; dictating where she could go and when, keeping her close by his side at all times. She stopped seeing her friends and answering her phone.
‘I lived with constant anxiety,’ Anna recalls. ‘Anytime I needed to go to the toilet in the night, I used to just wait in bed till he woke up in the morning, so he wouldn’t get angry. He completely diminished my self confidence. In the space of a year, I lost three and a half stone.’
Talking frankly about Ben’s abusive behaviour, Anna explains: ‘Before it would start; his face would go vacant. His whole demeanour would change. I kept thinking – is today going to be the day he will kill me?’
If she walked away, he would pull her back by her hair with such force she was left with permanent hair loss. He kicked and punched her unconscious and left her bleeding and bruised. One assault, filmed by the neighbours, was described as being akin to ‘a grown man kicking a football’.
Ben also burnt Anna, stabbed her and left her with lasting spine damage.
After 18 months of abuse, Ben was arrested and sentenced to 10 years behind bars (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Along with the physical abuse, there was coercive behaviour too. Ben made Anna leave the family WhatsApp group, deleted all her social media and took her phone away. He obsessed over what time she would leave the office, asking her to email from her work address the minute she left so he could monitor how long it took her to get home. If she failed to do so, he would fly into a rage.
Then eventually, he stopped her from working. She wasn’t even allowed to go to the shop on her own.
Aware of Ben’s dangerous behaviour, social services contacted Anna’s family and friends so they could build a case against him without her having to stand in court.
With the help of the charity Advance, they collected GPS evidence, CCTV and witness statements from neighbours – enough to charge him with GBH with intent.
SHOULD THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IMPLEMENT MORE PROTECTIVE MEASURES AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE?
Absolutely
Not necessary
It's complicated
After 18 months of violence, the police had enough evidence to arrest Ben without a statement from Anna. When they took him into custody she was finally able to tell officers the truth about the abuse.
‘I felt lighter at that point,’ Anna admits. ‘But I knew that wasn’t the end of it.’
Within two weeks Ben had called her 482 times from prison, warning that he had people on the outside who could kill her.
Then, last year, he appeared in court charged with GBH with intent and controlling and coercive behaviour and was sentenced to ten years behind bars.
‘That was the first time I felt safe’, Anna remembers.
Afterwards, one of the detectives working on her case said he would have given it six months before it became a murder trial. ‘That was shocking to hear,’ Anna says. He had immense control over my whole life. It was psychological control.’
IMPACT analysis has shown a 51% increase in arrests leading to conviction and 34% increase in convictions
Anna is incredibly grateful to the support she received from the police, the council and Advance who, under their IMPACT programme, assigned her a specialist police officer and an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate.
The programme is designed to overcome problems caused by an intimidating and bureaucratic criminal justice process and to support victims and survivors obtain justice.
And analysis shows that it works; with a 51% increase in arrests leading to conviction and 34% increase in convictions of domestic abuse cases.
Liz Mack, CEO of Advance: ‘We often see sentences for domestic abuse cases that are downgraded and shorter than comparable offences.’ (Picture: Advance)
‘Women tell us, first and foremost, that they want to be safe,’ explains Liz Mack, CEO of Advance. ‘The criminal justice system has an essential role to play in tackling domestic abuse; sentences for domestic abuse-related crimes must reflect the seriousness and level of harm caused, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
‘Appropriate sentences must go hand-in-hand with effective perpetrator programmes and other protective measures, such as restraining orders, which need to be implemented and followed through.
‘Sufficient criminal sentences are one part of the solution; we need action across the whole system and in the community to keep survivors safe.’
Today, Anna is very different to who she was before and has been left with depression and anxiety.
‘I do feel safe now. But more importantly, I feel free,’ she explains. ‘I know ten years will be enough time to sort myself out; to recover and heal from everything that’s happened.’
