 results in IMAX theatres during the four-day weekend from Friday, 15 January through Monday, 18 January. The IMAX release grossed $9.6 million from 179 IMAX theatres domestically, representing 17.7% of the film’s total domestic four-day weekend gross of $55 million on less than 2% of the screens. Internationally, the IMAX release grossed $5.6 million from 83 IMAX theatres, bringing the four-day weekend’s global IMAX total to approximately $15.3 million and the film’s overall IMAX global total to more than $116.4 million.
Avatar is directed and written by James Cameron and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver.
Avatar marks Cameron’s return to feature directing since helming 1997’s Titanic.
Imagine the following scenario. A phone rings. An office worker answers it and hears his panicked boss tell him that he forgot to wire money to the new contractor before he left for the day and needs to. She gives him the wire transfer information and with the money transferred, the crisis is averted.
The worker sits back in his chair, takes a deep breath and watches his boss walk in the door. The voice on the other end of the call was not his boss. In fact, he wasn’t even human. The voice he heard was that of an acoustic deepfake, a machine-generated sound sample designed to sound exactly like his boss.
Attacks like this using recorded audio have already happened, and deep chat audio spoofs may not be far off.
Deepfakes, both audio and video, have only been possible with the development of sophisticated machine learning technologies in recent years. Deepfakes have brought with them a new level of uncertainty about digital media. To detect deep fakes, many researchers have turned to analyzing visual artifacts – small glitches and inconsistencies – found in deep fake videos.
This isn’t Morgan Freeman, but if you weren’t told that, how would you know?
Deep audio fakes are potentially an even bigger threat because people often communicate verbally without video – for example, through phone calls, radio and voice recordings. These voice-only communications greatly expand the possibilities for attackers to use deepfakes.
To detect deep audio fakes, we and our research colleagues at the University of Florida developed a technique that measures the acoustic and fluid dynamic differences between voice samples generated organically by human speakers and those generated synthetically by computers.
People shout by forcing air into the various structures of the vocal tract, including the vocal cords, tongue, and lips. By rearranging these structures, you change the acoustic properties of your vocal tract, allowing you to create over 200 distinct sounds or phonemes. However, human anatomy fundamentally limits the auditory behavior of these different phonemes, resulting in a relatively small range of correct sounds for each.
Instead, audio deepfakes are created by first allowing a computer to listen to recordings of a targeted victim’s speaker. Depending on the exact techniques used, the computer may need to listen to 10 to 20 seconds of audio. This audio is used to extract key information about the unique aspects of the victim’s voice.
The attacker selects a phrase for the deepfake to speak and then, using a modified text-to-speech algorithm, creates an audio sample that sounds like the victim is saying the selected phrase. This process of creating a single fake audio sample can be completed in a matter of seconds, potentially allowing attackers enough flexibility to use the deep fake voice in a conversation.
The first step in differentiating human-produced speech from deep-fake speech is understanding how the vocal tract is acoustically modeled. Fortunately, scientists have techniques to estimate what someone—or someone like a dinosaur—would sound like based on anatomical measurements of their vocal tract.
We did the opposite. By reversing many of these same techniques, we were able to extract an approximation of a speaker’s vocal tract during a segment of speech. This allowed us to effectively examine the anatomy of the speaker who produced the audio sample.
From here, we hypothesized that deep false sound samples could not be constrained by the same anatomical constraints that humans have. In other words, the analysis of deep false sound samples simulate vocal tract forms that do not exist in humans.
Our test results not only confirmed our hypothesis but revealed something interesting. When extracting vocal line estimates from deep false audio, we found that the estimates were often comically wrong. For example, it was common for deep falsetto to result in vocal tracts of the same relative diameter and consistency as a straw, unlike human vocal tracts, which are much wider and more varied in shape.
This realization demonstrates that spurious audio, even when convincing to human listeners, is far from distinguishable from human-generated speech. By assessing the anatomy responsible for generating the observed speech, it is possible to determine whether the sound was generated by a person or a computer.
Today’s world is defined by the digital exchange of media and information. Everything from news to entertainment and conversations with loved ones usually happen through digital exchanges. Even in their infancy, deepfake video and audio undermine the trust people have in these exchanges, effectively limiting their usefulness.
If the digital world is to remain a critical resource for information in people’s lives, efficient and secure techniques for determining the source of an audio sample are vital.
Amazingly for me running on a treadmill is HARDER because of no headwind.  I miss the cooling effect and the stagnation of the air around takes its toll on my physically and mentally as everything about treadmill running to me is a chore vs outdoor running which is enjoyable.

I do better outdoors just because it's so varied that I enjoy it all as it changes around me and dno't get bored like I do on a treadmill.

For me to pull off 2 miles on a treadmill is a feat... I struggle and hate it. 

But on a trail in the park, 4+ miles is no problem.import React from'react';
import { Carousel } from 'antd-mobile';

import styles from './roll.less'; 

export default ({ dataSource=[], play=false, onClick, gotoNewsDetail }) => 
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    <Carousel
      vertical
      dots={false}
      dragging={false}
      swiping={false}
      autoplay={play}
      infinite
      slideWidth="36px"
      autoplayInterval={5000}
      speed={1000}
    >
      {
        dataSource.map((d,i)=>
          <div 
            key={`${d.id}-${i}`} 
            className={ styles.item }
            onClick={()=>gotoNewsDetail(d.id)}
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            <p> {d.title.length > 15? `${d.title.substr(0,15)}...` : d.title} </p>
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    </Carousel>
  </div>Justin Bieber Certain Selena Gomez Will Come Back, "Cocky" About It
With the two having met up at her house this week, the Biebs apparently is telling friends that he can get Selena back whenever he wants, according to Hollywood Life.
“He’s really cocky,” a source says.," adds the insider.
Justin was spotted spending about an hour at Selena's home this week when he was back in town on a brief break from his tour.
Since they split, Justin has reportedly become a pretty big fan of himself. In fact, he's been making his team watch his Saturday Night Live epiosde from February on a loop on the tour bus. Live from New York, it's the same damn show you watched two hours ago.
“It’s so awkward," reveals the insider.  points out.
Apparently, it was Selena who used to tell Justin to cool it when he would get a bit too boastful.
“Selena used to tell him what was up and it must have helped keep him grounded, because since they broke up his ego is out of control,” the source says.
It had seemed like Selena and Justin were dunzo for good this time, especially with her telling Dave Letterman she'd made Justin cry.
Maybe those tears are (salty) water under a bridge?
Source: Hollywood LifeDonald Trump should be magnanimous and gracious toward those whom he defeated last week, but his first duty is to keep faith with those who put their faith in him.
Trump should take as models the Democrats FDR and LBJ. Franklin Roosevelt, who had savaged Herbert Hoover as a big spender, launched his own New Deal in his first 100 days. History now hails his initiative and resolve.
Lyndon Johnson exploited his landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964 to erect his Great Society in 1965: the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid. He compromised on nothing, and got it all. Even those who turned on him for Vietnam still celebrate his domestic achievements.
For the historic opportunity he and the Republican Party have been given by his stunning and unanticipated victory of Nov. 8 will not last long. His adversaries and enemies in politics and press are only temporarily dazed and reeling. This great opening should be exploited now.
The GOP, however, on Jan. 20, will control both Houses of Congress and the White House, with the real possibility of remaking