Author: Matt Gilligan

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Zao Is a Deepfake App That Snaps Your Photo and Makes You a Celebrity

Deepfakes are pretty creepy, if we’re being honest. Though they don’t seem to be especially helpful to anyone, deepfakes nonetheless look like they’ll be around for awhile.

Now, it’s easier than ever to produce your own deepfake (yay) with an app called Zao, created by Chinese developer MoMo.

According to Insider, the app topped Chinese iOS download charts after its recent unleashing.

If you didn’t know, deepfakes are bizarrely realistic CGI videos created by an algorithm. Deepfakes can be silly, like putting Nick Offerman’s face on every character in the Full House opening credits. But the scary thing about deepfakes is that they could also be used to falsify the words or deeds of an innocent person.

Now, with the touch of a button.

On your phone…

Indie game developer, Allan Xia, created a video of  a deepfake of himself as Leonardo DiCaprio in some of his movies. He shared the video to Twitter, where it quickly went viral because of how realistic it was. The program read one photo of Xia and paired it with DiCaprio’s facial expressions and mouth movements. Xia noted he only needed one image of himself and about eight seconds to create the deepfake.

Despite Xia’s achievement with the app, he also noted its potential dangers.

Is the intent purely to entertain?

Will it be used to bombard us with images of ourselves for marketing purposes?

Others on Twitter posted deepfakes of themselves as cast members of TV shows and movies.

The app’s developer, MoMo, is also a large social media platform in China. They have already been banned on WeChat due to a line buried in their usage terms that retains “free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicense-able” access to all content it is used to generate.

So, they can own your face.

China’s expansive surveillance network already uses manipulated images of people, for which it has received criticism from both inside and outside the country.

Thankfully, you must have a Chinese phone number to download Zao, and if you don’t live in China, Zao having ownership of your face is not necessarily going to mean anything practical to you. After all, Facebook can use any of the content you’ve uploaded for whatever they want, too.

Xia has been microblogging about the app and disturbing impacts, both real and imagined on Twitter.

The future, it turns out, is creepy.

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10 People Share the Nicest Thing a Stranger Ever Did for Them

You never know what a simple gesture can do to someone having a bad day. And you just might find they’ll pay it forward.

A Reddit user posted a question in r/AskReddit asking, “What is the nicest thing a stranger has done for you?” and the answers will have you wanting to do the same.

Photo Credit: Unsplash, Sandrachile

10. Stranger (not) Danger

“When I was about eight years old, I crossed the street without looking. As soon as I started to cross, a stranger pulled me back by my shirt. Of course, a car flew by the same moment. Thank you, stranger.” ~jkovvv

9. Quite a “Prince”

““I was at a bar with my then-girlfriend and seated next to us was an older gentleman who was alone. He tapped my girlfriend on the shoulder and said, ‘I like the way you two talk to each other. I spent a fortune on these tickets for my wife. Unfortunately, she can’t go anymore, and I don’t want to go without her. So I’d like you two to have them. The only catch is that the concert starts in twenty minutes.’ He didn’t elaborate, nor would he accept payment. He asked only that we enjoy ourselves, and keep being good to each other…And that’s how I got front row seats to see Prince in concert.” ~DukeOfCheddar

8. Chocolate helps

“I was feeling really down because of school (and just life in general). I stopped at a convenience store on the way home to pick up a bit of chocolate to make myself feel better. The guy at the register must have noticed how miserable I looked because he gave me the chocolate bar for free. It was a really simple act of kindness, but it almost made me tear up and instantly improved a shitty day.” ~angry__donkeys

Photo Credit: Unsplash, Andrea Tummons

7. A delicious birthday gift

“One year, my birthday really sucked. I decided to go buy myself a cake at the grocery store to cheer myself up. When the guy at the counter asked who it was for (in retrospect, he meant what name to put on it), I said it was for me. He was incredulous at the idea that I had to buy my own birthday cake. I just kind of shrugged. He said I could pay for my cake when I came back to pick it up.

When I came back, a different person was at the register and she said my cake had already been paid for. It was also decorated more than I requested. I have not seen that guy working there since, so in my head I’ve called him ‘The Cake Fairy.’” ~mamblepamble

6. Kindness is best served with quality time

“I spent some extra time helping a customer who my co-workers seemed annoyed with because she asked a lot of questions. The customer left and, about 30 minutes later, she flagged me down in the parking lot as I was going on my break. I went over to her car, she thanked me, and handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers she’d just gone and bought for me. Very sweet and very unexpected.” ~dasistverboten

5. Struggle busing

“I was struggling to carry all my books after I got off the bus because they didn’t fit in my bag (I already had four other textbooks in there), and I couldn’t get on my bike. A lady had seen me struggling, ran out of her house, and gave me an extra bag. I almost cried because that was the nicest thing.” ~RecoveryForMyself

4. Above and beyond

“In Paris, the Metro is not wheelchair-friendly. We got stuck once because the accessible station was closed and we were diverted elsewhere. Two guys walked up, picked up my Mother-in-Law in her wheelchair, carried her up a flight of stairs, through the turnstile, and down another flight of stairs to the platform. They wanted nothing more than a ‘thank you.’ I don’t think they even knew each other.” ~LowerSeaworthiness

3. Parent to Parent

“I was carrying my sobbing infant in the grocery store while waiting in line to check out. I was overwhelmed (it was my first trip out after my son was born), and a kind older man said, ‘One day, you’re going to look back on this with happy memories, and even miss these moments.’ He then insisted that I cut in front of him in line and bought all of my groceries. That had a huge impact on me. What a wonderful man.” ~southernbelletx12

2. Kindness at any age

“I used to be in a deep depression. One day, as I was vacuuming my apartment complex, a young girl looked at me and said “Oh my gosh, you are just so beautiful. Wow!” It completely caught me off guard and brought a smile to my face. It’s definitely the little things.” ~Words-Are-Words

1. A sweet stranger

“I was riding the bus and talking on the phone, freaking out about how I was going to feed my fiancé and I, as I was the only person working (a 100% commission job). A stranger heard me on the verge of tears and politely alerted me I had ‘dropped’ some money. It was $40 I knew I hadn’t dropped, but my fiancé and I used every penny. I never got to thank them, but I quit that job a week or so later and found something more stable.” ~AGGroAzteca

To these folks, I say, “Kindness looks amazing on you.”

The post 10 People Share the Nicest Thing a Stranger Ever Did for Them appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

10 People Share the Nicest Thing a Stranger Ever Did for Them

You never know what a simple gesture can do to someone having a bad day. And you just might find they’ll pay it forward.

A Reddit user posted a question in r/AskReddit asking, “What is the nicest thing a stranger has done for you?” and the answers will have you wanting to do the same.

Photo Credit: Unsplash, Sandrachile

10. Stranger (not) Danger

“When I was about eight years old, I crossed the street without looking. As soon as I started to cross, a stranger pulled me back by my shirt. Of course, a car flew by the same moment. Thank you, stranger.” ~jkovvv

9. Quite a “Prince”

““I was at a bar with my then-girlfriend and seated next to us was an older gentleman who was alone. He tapped my girlfriend on the shoulder and said, ‘I like the way you two talk to each other. I spent a fortune on these tickets for my wife. Unfortunately, she can’t go anymore, and I don’t want to go without her. So I’d like you two to have them. The only catch is that the concert starts in twenty minutes.’ He didn’t elaborate, nor would he accept payment. He asked only that we enjoy ourselves, and keep being good to each other…And that’s how I got front row seats to see Prince in concert.” ~DukeOfCheddar

8. Chocolate helps

“I was feeling really down because of school (and just life in general). I stopped at a convenience store on the way home to pick up a bit of chocolate to make myself feel better. The guy at the register must have noticed how miserable I looked because he gave me the chocolate bar for free. It was a really simple act of kindness, but it almost made me tear up and instantly improved a shitty day.” ~angry__donkeys

Photo Credit: Unsplash, Andrea Tummons

7. A delicious birthday gift

“One year, my birthday really sucked. I decided to go buy myself a cake at the grocery store to cheer myself up. When the guy at the counter asked who it was for (in retrospect, he meant what name to put on it), I said it was for me. He was incredulous at the idea that I had to buy my own birthday cake. I just kind of shrugged. He said I could pay for my cake when I came back to pick it up.

When I came back, a different person was at the register and she said my cake had already been paid for. It was also decorated more than I requested. I have not seen that guy working there since, so in my head I’ve called him ‘The Cake Fairy.’” ~mamblepamble

6. Kindness is best served with quality time

“I spent some extra time helping a customer who my co-workers seemed annoyed with because she asked a lot of questions. The customer left and, about 30 minutes later, she flagged me down in the parking lot as I was going on my break. I went over to her car, she thanked me, and handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers she’d just gone and bought for me. Very sweet and very unexpected.” ~dasistverboten

5. Struggle busing

“I was struggling to carry all my books after I got off the bus because they didn’t fit in my bag (I already had four other textbooks in there), and I couldn’t get on my bike. A lady had seen me struggling, ran out of her house, and gave me an extra bag. I almost cried because that was the nicest thing.” ~RecoveryForMyself

4. Above and beyond

“In Paris, the Metro is not wheelchair-friendly. We got stuck once because the accessible station was closed and we were diverted elsewhere. Two guys walked up, picked up my Mother-in-Law in her wheelchair, carried her up a flight of stairs, through the turnstile, and down another flight of stairs to the platform. They wanted nothing more than a ‘thank you.’ I don’t think they even knew each other.” ~LowerSeaworthiness

3. Parent to Parent

“I was carrying my sobbing infant in the grocery store while waiting in line to check out. I was overwhelmed (it was my first trip out after my son was born), and a kind older man said, ‘One day, you’re going to look back on this with happy memories, and even miss these moments.’ He then insisted that I cut in front of him in line and bought all of my groceries. That had a huge impact on me. What a wonderful man.” ~southernbelletx12

2. Kindness at any age

“I used to be in a deep depression. One day, as I was vacuuming my apartment complex, a young girl looked at me and said “Oh my gosh, you are just so beautiful. Wow!” It completely caught me off guard and brought a smile to my face. It’s definitely the little things.” ~Words-Are-Words

1. A sweet stranger

“I was riding the bus and talking on the phone, freaking out about how I was going to feed my fiancé and I, as I was the only person working (a 100% commission job). A stranger heard me on the verge of tears and politely alerted me I had ‘dropped’ some money. It was $40 I knew I hadn’t dropped, but my fiancé and I used every penny. I never got to thank them, but I quit that job a week or so later and found something more stable.” ~AGGroAzteca

To these folks, I say, “Kindness looks amazing on you.”

The post 10 People Share the Nicest Thing a Stranger Ever Did for Them appeared first on UberFacts.

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A Study Says Frequently Attending Concerts Makes You Happier

Nothing brings people together like seeing a live band perform. Singing along with a few thousand of your best friends to a great song makes for a positive outlook and other warm, fuzzy emotions that carry over to the next day and beyond. We’ve all been there.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Research validates those good vibrations.

Psychologists, Melissa K. Weinberg and Dawn Joseph, studied the connection between “music engagement and subjective wellbeing,” or SWB. The study focused solely on the good feelings concert-goers get when they see performances live.

For their study, one thousand random participants were polled via phone. They found that “engaging with music by dancing or attending musical events was associated with higher SWB.” They concluded that people who socialized with others at concerts experienced SWB higher than people who didn’t.

Music bonded people with others in a community-like atmosphere. The good feelings generated by hanging out with others who like the same music and performers appeared to last for some time after the event ended. This was true across all ages.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

But going to concerts is certainly not the only way to boost your mood and get happier. Plenty of other research points to increasing happiness levels by simply listening to music. So, stream that new Taylor Swift album and sing into your hairbrush as loud as you can.

You’ll be happy you did.

The post A Study Says Frequently Attending Concerts Makes You Happier appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Study Says Frequently Attending Concerts Makes You Happier

Nothing brings people together like seeing a live band perform. Singing along with a few thousand of your best friends to a great song makes for a positive outlook and other warm, fuzzy emotions that carry over to the next day and beyond. We’ve all been there.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Research validates those good vibrations.

Psychologists, Melissa K. Weinberg and Dawn Joseph, studied the connection between “music engagement and subjective wellbeing,” or SWB. The study focused solely on the good feelings concert-goers get when they see performances live.

For their study, one thousand random participants were polled via phone. They found that “engaging with music by dancing or attending musical events was associated with higher SWB.” They concluded that people who socialized with others at concerts experienced SWB higher than people who didn’t.

Music bonded people with others in a community-like atmosphere. The good feelings generated by hanging out with others who like the same music and performers appeared to last for some time after the event ended. This was true across all ages.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

But going to concerts is certainly not the only way to boost your mood and get happier. Plenty of other research points to increasing happiness levels by simply listening to music. So, stream that new Taylor Swift album and sing into your hairbrush as loud as you can.

You’ll be happy you did.

The post A Study Says Frequently Attending Concerts Makes You Happier appeared first on UberFacts.

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Here’s How Intermittent Fasting May Enhance Your Immune System

For years, it’s been argued whether intermittent fasting is good for us. Is it worth the hunger? Are there any actual health benefits from doing it?

Over the years, some people have claimed that this method has helped with rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments. Studies have also shown that intermittent fasting has improved multiple sclerosis in mice.

Well, there is more evidence that fasting may be beneficial to our health.

Photo Credit: Needpix

Three new studies explore how fasting might temporarily offer certain health benefits to humans. All three studies saw researchers give mice less food or go on a water-only diet for about a day. Each study researched a different type of immune cell and discovered that each type of cell had a unique response to the fasting.

Two of the three studies looked at the T and B cells. These cells help create immunity against past infections and identify and destroy pathogens. When the mice fasted, the T and B cells disappeared from the bloodstream and the organ tissues. The immune cells took shelter in the bone marrow to protect themselves. In other words, the cells migrated to the bone marrow, which is food rich, to survive during fasting.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The studies further showed that when the T cells did retreat to the bone marrow, they became supercharged. T cells produce molecules to kill pathogens and cancers, so this is potentially a very important find. When mice were injected with a pathogen they’d had in their bodies before, the fasting mice fought it off in only two days, as opposed to the week it took the regularly-fed mice.

Study author Dr. Yasmine Belkaid said, “It’s a striking enhancement. The goal is to [eventually] understand this magic soup in the bone marrow and extract what’s making that response. If we can train our cells to do these things, we can have an extraordinary impact on human health.”

The third study revolved around the white blood cells that attack pathogens. These are called monocytes. When you’re sick, this type of cell induces inflammation. This study showed that monocytes went down in the bloodstreams of both mice and humans when they fasted; the mice’s bone marrow was still producing monocytes, just not as many were being released into the bloodstream.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Fasting somehow creates a “roadblock” between bone marrow and blood for the monocyte cells. If fewer monocytes are moving throughout the body, overall inflammation goes down.

These studies suggest that intermittent fasting can be a good thing, and we can manipulate our immune systems based on changing how much we eat.

Something to think about…that’s for sure.

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You Can Buy a Tiny House on Amazon for $37,000 That Expands by Remote Control

If you and your family have put in any time house hunting, you know it’s very difficult to find what you’re looking for and not pay a fortune for it. In backlash, the tiny house has arisen.

The tiny house craze doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon, and now there’s a new addition to the market that you can actually buy on Amazon. And why not? You can buy almost every single you’ll ever need in life on Amazon, so might as well throw a house into the mix as well.

This tiny house is designed by a Chinese company called WHZ Group and costs just $36,800, plus $1,000 for shipping. Just FYI, the average home price in the United States right now is $227,700.

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

The house can also be expanded with a hydraulic system by using a remote control. How’s that for 21st-century technology?

The house has wind and solar-power systems, a small living space, kitchenette, and a bathroom with a sink, shower, and toilet. If owners are so inclined, they can also have the house wired for electricity. WHZ Group also sells a slightly different version of the house, also on Amazon.

Here are a few photos of the interior.

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

The house also features a folding deck and a canopy. Take a look at the floor plan:

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

And this is what the floor plan looks like when the house is compactly folded using the remote control.

Photo Credit: Amazon/WZH Group

Are tiny houses the future? Or just a passing fad that is overhyped at the moment?

What do you think of this idea? I say the smaller, the better. Sign me up!

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A Huge Underwater Observatory Mysteriously Vanished from the Ocean Floor

Let’s just dive right in to this story: a large underwater observatory has mysteriously gone missing. It was on the seafloor, and now it’s not. Nobody knows why.

The Boknis Eck Observatory has been on the seafloor off the northern coast of Germany since December 2016. It’s managed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht.

For almost three years, the observatory collected information about water temperature, nutrients, salinity, the speed of water flow, and concentrations of chlorophyll and methane.

But on August 21, transmissions from the observatory suddenly stopped. Divers went down to the site to investigate what went wrong, and they discovered that the entire structure had disappeared except for a shredded transmission cable, Gizmodo reports.

Sure, it could be an accident. But officials think it’s more likely that someone intentionally removed the observatory, because the structure is so large and heavy that natural causes (such as a storm or animals) couldn’t possibly move it.

But who would steal an underwater observatory? And why?! For now, it remains a mystery. German police are now investigating the incident, and the scientists have asked anyone who knows anything to come forward.

“[At] first we thought of a transmission error,” Hermann Bange, project coordinator for the Boknis Eck Observatory, said in a GEOMAR statement. Then the diving mission revealed that the problem was much larger. “The devices were gone, the divers could not find them anymore. When the divers reached the bottom of the sea last week at the observatory’s location, they found only the torn off land cable. It was completely shredded,” Hermann said.

The $330,000 structure weighed about 770 pounds.

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Here Are Some Quick Tips for Capturing Those Cool Blurred Background Photos on Your iPhone

All of us want to take that perfect photo with our iPhone, especially those super-sharp portraits with the blurred background where your subject appears to be professionally shot. For all you budding photographers out there, here are three easy ways to make your photo skills the envy of your friends (even if you don’t own a new phone with a great camera).

Photo Credit: Pexels, Element5 Digital

3. Portrait Mode

This is the simplest method. If you have an iPhone X, XR, XS, or XS Max or an iPhone 7 or 8 Plus, you should have a Portrait Mode feature.

Open up your handy camera app, swipe until you find “Portrait” and simply position your subject within the limits of the lens. It will tell you if you need to move closer or farther away. When the words “Natural Light” appear, then you are set to snap at your heart’s content!

Photo Credit: Pexels, Oleg Magni

2. Position your subject just right – For older iPhones

Place your subject within a few feet of the lens. A yellow box should appear, tap it and the lens will be forced to focus on the object, leaving the background out of focus. Just move closer or farther away until the background fully blurs. You can also tap an object and hold on it to force the camera to lock into focus on it. Then it will keep the same focus, even if you or your subject moves.

1. Third-Party Apps

Sometimes, older iPhones just aren’t capable of capturing that desired blur. Therefore, we recommend trying out a third-party app that performs this feature. There are free apps available (like Blur Photo Background) or paid ones with better features (like AfterFocus). Either way, try some out!

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These Memes Are so Funny They Might Be Created by Absolute Geniuses

Fact: memes really are what we come to the Internet for. At the end of the day, we really want to laugh. So let’s laugh fam. Does that sound doable?

These 14 memes will make things all better.

Guaranteed.

1. A real smart ass, wouldn’t you say?

Photo Credit: someecards

2. The good and the bad and the ugly and the really, really awful

Photo Credit: someecards

3. I can do that! Watch me!

Photo Credit: someecards

4. Can’t be topped

Photo Credit: someecards

5. Sure that’s an Uber?

Photo Credit: someecards

6. We need to leave now

Photo Credit: someecards

7. Correct

Photo Credit: someecards

8. Thank. You. So. Damn. Much.

Photo Credit: someecards

9. Future looks bright. I gotta wear shades.

Photo Credit: Twitter

10. Gone with the wind and the rain and all of the other weather…

Photo Credit: someecards

11. Let’s go! No, seriously, LET’S GO!!!!

Photo Credit: someecards

12. It all started one dewey summer morning…

Photo Credit: someecards

13. Put an end to that right now! I’m serious!

Photo Credit: someecards

14. I can’t do this anymore! I’m going nuts!

Photo Credit: someecards

Ahhhh, doesn’t that feel better? I can hear the laughter from here. You like memes, you really like memes!

Which were your faves? Let us know in the comments, you beautiful, sexy, well adjusted people!

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