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ubet63 registration A high-profile violent crime typically sets social media abuzz with tips and theories from amateur internet sleuths, hunting for the alleged perpetrator. But after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in New York City this week without a primary suspect being identified, a rare occurrence happened in the thriving true-crime world: silence online from highly followed armchair detectives. “I have yet to see a single video that’s pounding the drum of ‘we have to find him,’ and that is unique,” said Michael McWhorter, better known as TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for his 6.7 million followers. “And in other situations of some kind of blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that.” A masked gunman, who is still on the lam, fatally shot the 50-year-old executive in front of a busy New York City hotel Wednesday, police said. Shell casings found at the scene had “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, according to a senior New York City law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. Thompson’s targeted killing has sparked online praise from people angry over the state of U.S. health care. Tens of thousands of people have expressed support on social media for the killing or sympathized with it. Some even appeared to celebrate it. “The surge of social media posts praising and glorifying the killing of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is deeply concerning,” Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University previously told NBC News . (Thompson was CEO of UnitedHealthcare, not of UnitedHealth Group, its parent company.) In a statement, Thompson’s family said he was “an incredibly loving father” to two sons and “will be greatly missed.” “We are shattered to hear about the senseless killing of our beloved Brian,” the statement said. “Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives.” Still, some of the most popular internet sleuths have sat out the investigation. “We’re pretty apathetic towards that,” Savannah Sparks, who has 1.3 million followers on her TikTok account — where she tracks down and reveals the identities of people who do racist or seemingly criminal acts in viral videos — said about helping to identify the shooter. She added that, rather than sleuthing, her community has “concepts of thoughts and prayers. It’s, you know, claim denied on my prayers there,” referring to rote and unserious condolences. Although Sparks, 34, has been tapped by law enforcement in the past to help train officers on how to find suspects online, according to emails seen by NBC News, she said this time she isn’t interested in helping police. Sparks, who also works in health care as a lactation consultant and holds a doctorate of pharmacy, didn’t mince words when asked if her community was working to find the suspect in Thompson’s murder. “Absolutely the f--- not,” she said. Another popular TikTok sleuth, thatdaneshguy, who has 2 million followers on the platform, made a video that was critical of the health care industry, saying that he wouldn’t try to identify the killer. “I don’t have to encourage violence. I don’t have to condone violence by any means. But I also don’t have to help,” he said. That attitude among some content creators comes amid amplified attention on frustrations with medical care in the U.S. in the wake of the killing. A Gallup poll released Friday found that Americans believe health care quality is at a 24-year low. Those polled said health care coverage is even worse, with 54% saying it’s fair or poor. Online sleuths have helped the FBI identify hundreds of Capitol rioters and catch previously arrested Jan. 6 defendants committing crimes that the bureau’s own review had missed, in one case even finding evidence of a Proud Boy assaulting an officer in the middle of his seditious conspiracy trial. And when Gabby Petito , 22, went missing as she documented her cross-country travels on social media with her fiancé, online sleuths jumped into action. It was later determined that Petito was killed by her fiancé Brian Laundrie, who died by suicide. At least one person who did try to help find Thompson’s killer was criticized on X, formerly known as Twitter, for doing so. In a viral post, Riley Walz, a software engineer, said he was “fairly confident” about where the shooter fled to on a bike after scouring data from the Citi Bike’s bikeshare program. He said he shared the information with the police. But a source close to Lyft, which operates Citi Bike, later said the NYPD told the company directly that the incident did not involve the bikeshare program. Walz declined to comment Friday. Since his post, some X users have called him a “snitch.” McWhorter, or TikTok’s TizzyEnt, said backlash toward those who did try to help might cause others to not want to step in. “If you’re seeing it in such a groundswell, I have to imagine that factors into some people’s decision,” he said. But mostly, McWhorter said, “there’s this weird thing, this vibe of like, I don’t see a bunch of people just feeling an urgency.” McWhorter posted his first video about the incident Friday evening. The roughly two-minute video was about “how much people don’t care.” Sukrit Venkatagiri, an assistant professor of computer science at Swarthmore College, said many people feel a lack of connection with a wealthy CEO. “They don’t really empathize with who the victim is in this scenario,” Venkatagiri said. Venkatagiri, who has studied the harms of misinformation and disinformation as well as crowd sourcing investigations, said, anecdotally, he has seen less talk of finding Thompson’s killer on spaces like the subreddit r/Reddit Bureau of Investigations, an online sleuthing page on Reddit that claims it is “using the power of the internet to solve real-world problems.” “People are less motivated, from an altruistic perspective, to help this victim in this specific case,” Venkatagiri said. Beyond a lack of online sleuthing, which can sometimes muddy law enforcement’s investigations, there has been a flurry of information released by the New York Police Department. Police released two images of a “person of interest,” including one in which he is smiling while using a fake ID to check out of a hostel on New York City’s Upper West Side, as well as several surveillance videos, including one in which the suspect shoots Thompson. Investigators believe the shooter may have traveled to New York City from Atlanta last month by bus, three senior law enforcement officials familiar with the case told NBC News. Investigators have not identified a suspect, although the investigation is ongoing, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter said Friday. Police have found dozens of images from surveillance cameras of the suspect from tracking his timeline in Manhattan, the official said. Police have offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Tom Winter, Jonathan Dienst, Ken Dilanian, Ryan J. Reilly and Bruna Horvath contributed. This article first appeared on NBCNews.com . Read more from NBC News here: Judge dismisses manslaughter charge in Daniel Penny trial after jury deadlock Trump says embattled Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth is 'doing well now' in NBC News interview In 'Queer,' Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey share 'unsynchronized love' and a brutal ayahuasca trip

Get essential daily news for Fort Worth area Sign up to receive insightful, in-depth local stories today. 📩 Thanks to Fort Worth residents, the city’s dozen new street sweepers now have names. Throughout the naming contest, the city received 1,300 name submissions. Residents were encouraged to submit up to three suggestions. An online vote was held for the top 50 contenders chosen by residents. Now, Fort Worth residents can expect to see these winning names displayed on the side of sweepers as they clean streets across the city: Sweep in the Heart of Texas Lightning McClean Obi Wan Cleanobi Sir Sweeps-A-Lot Cowtown Clean Machine Lone Star Sweeper Sweepasaurus Rex Baby Got Vac Funkytown Fresh Big Molly Sweep Caroline Bob The city unveiled its new fleet in September following a yearlong waiting period. The vehicles were purchased in spring 2023 for $3.5 million in an effort to expand litter cleanup resources. That same year, Fort Worth raised its monthly environmental fee from 50 cents to $1.50 per month for residents, the first fee increase in 26 years, according to previous Report coverage. Resident concerns about litter have been on the rise since 2019, according to community surveys conducted by the city. This led to the establishment of the environmental services department in 2023, which expanded litter pickup services to highways along with other projects, including the now-paused Trinity River trash wheel . Get essential daily news for the Fort Worth area. Sign up for insightful, in-depth stories — completely free. Having replaced Fort Worth’s first two sweepers, the new vehicles are designed to help reach Fort Worth’s goal of maintaining a clean and attractive city, Environmental Services Director Cody Whittenburg said in September. The trucks are equipped with a large steel-bristle broom, a vacuum cleaner and tiny water hoses to help settle dust. The “hopper,” the vehicle’s storage tank, collects up to 2,000 pounds of trash before being disposed of. Every 10 curb miles, operators stop cleaning and dump the trash collected by the vehicle at a waste facility. The sweepers will run regular routes through the city’s most littered neighborhoods, with a goal of cleaning about 6,380 street miles per month. The city’s original sweepers cleaned about 580 miles per month, Code Compliance Director Brandon Bennett previously told the Report . The street sweeper fleet is operated by 13 employees through four 10-hour shifts per week, according to Whittenburg. Nicole Lopez is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here . Related Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism . Republish This Story Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site. You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code. You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you use our stories in any other medium — for example, newsletters or other email campaigns — you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use “Author Name, Fort Worth Report” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report” and include our website, fortworthreport.org . You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. by Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Report December 4, 2024Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. stock rises Friday, still underperforms market

NoneWhen Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's romance first began, some fans felt like it was a romantic-comedy plot come to life. Well, now, it might be just that. Lifetime's "Christmas in the Spotlight," which premiered on the network Nov. 23, is seemingly inspired by the popular couple. The film focuses on mega pop-star Bowyn Sykes (Jessica Lord), who has blond hair, bright red lips and often sports a cat-eye. Bowyn is at the height of her career, focused on making music her fans love, baking for fun and not looking for a new boyfriend after being tired of only dating “serious actors and indie rockers.” Meanwhile, Drew "Gonzo" Gonville (Laith Wallschleger) is one of the best wide receivers in the league who, from the outside, seems like a playboy, but he really loves hanging out with his family and niece. The end credits of the movie state, "The characters and events depicted in this motion picture are fictional. Any similarities to actual persons or animals living or dead are purely coincidental." The movie's writer Eirene Tran Donohue told USA Today that after seeing Swift cheering on Kelce during a football game, she thought, "This could be a rom-com." "I was like, ‘Christmas and Taylor Swift?' These are the two great loves of my life," she said. Speaking to the Associated Press , Tran Donohue said, "It’s clearly inspired by Taylor and Travis, but I don’t know them, and I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes." But she said she wrote the script for Swift fans. “There are so many Easter eggs,” she told AP. “I put in as many as I could.” Here's a roundup of all the apparent references to Swift, Kelce and their headline-making relationship. 'Arrows' Like Swift's Swifties, Bowyn's fans also have a nickname — "Arrows" or "Arrow heads." ("Bows, arrows, Bowyn's arrows, get it?" one character explains at the start of the film.) Arrowhead is also notably the name of the Kansas City Chiefs' stadium, and the place where Swift and Kelce went public with their relationship. Drew's jersey number The male lead of "Christmas in the Spotlight" plays for the fictional Bay Spring Bombers. His jersey number doesn't emulate Kelce's (No. 87) but rather, Swift's lucky number, 13. How the pop star and football player meet In "Christmas in the Spotlight," Bowyn and Drew meet backstage at one of her concerts. Drew then attempts to get Bowyn’s attention after their brief meet up backstage by inviting her to a game over social media. While, Swift and Kelce famously did not meet at the "Eras Tour," their relationship was set in motion after the tight end shared that he tried and failed to pass along his phone number while at her show . References to Swift lyrics During one of their first meetings, Bowyn tells Drew, “Growing up, I was never really the cheerleader type, more of a bleacher girl. Kind of a nerd to be honest," paralleling Swift's line "She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers," from her song "You Belong with Me." On their first date, which just so happens to be in Bowyn's private jet, the two have a myriad of song lyric interactions relating to Swift's "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart ." Bowyn says, "I'm a tough kid." Then, Drew notes, "You look like you’re having the time of your life." Newscasters in the film are also given seemingly Swift inspired names: Chad Marcus (" Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus ") and Aimee Hannah (" Thank You Aimee "). Later in the film, the characters' dialogue references songs including, but not limited to: "The Alchemy," "You're Losing Me," "Wonderland," "All Too Well," "Mean" and more. Cheering him on Bowyn and Drew's blissful romance faces its first challenge when he wants to go public, but Bowyn isn't ready yet, maintaining that she values her privacy too much. The couple breaks up, but the world is still unaware they were ever together. While Bowyn privately mourns the relationship, the media begins speculating when she will release her next "catchy break up" song. Angry at the media and missing Drew, Bowyn decides to show up at his game and surprise him, sitting in his family box. (Swift and Kelce famously went public after she attended the Chiefs-Bears matchup at Arrowhead Stadium Sept. 24, 2023 . She's since become a fixture in the box at Chiefs home games.) In the film, Drew, who initially wasn't having a great game, immediately turns it around after seeing Bowyn. After he scores a touchdown, Drew strikes Kelce's signature archer pose, which Swift has also made on stage during her aptly-titled song, "The Archer." While in the family box, Drew's mom takes the time to tell Bowyn, "I know he’s got a bit of a reputation, but he’s got a good heart," dropping the name of Swift’s sixth album. An out of context phone call Now public with their relationship, Bowyn and Drew start supporting each other at their respective games and concerts. The media starts speculating if it’s a PR relationship and the public begins to get invested . When the duo attends a party for a brand celebrating their “best things issue,” Drew leaves the event early after a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, Bowyn is intercepted by her actor ex-boyfriend. Her ex begins questioning why she's with a football player and insulting Drew, but she quickly shuts him down. "He is a better man than you in every way and I’ve never been happier," she says (either accidentally or purposely referencing two Swift songs, "Better Man" and "Happiness"). Things start to look up after Bowyn and Drew make up, and the wide receiver is offered a contract with a football team in Los Angeles, potentially putting them in the same city. Then, Bowyn's ex leaks an edited recording of a conversation the two of them had in which she sarcastically says she is only with Drew for publicity reasons. He conveniently doesn't release the parts of the conversation where she defended Drew. While initially heartbroken, Drew finally believes Bowyn after his brother (also a football player) and sister-in-law show him the full video, proving she tried to defend him. This moment could be a reference to the phone call audio Kim Kardashian leaked in 2016 between Swift and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, over the rapper using her name in his song "Famous." The footage caused the internet to turn on Swift, beginning the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty trending hashtag. In 2020, the full, unedited clip was released online. Friendship bracelets After the truth is revealed, Drew resigns himself to thinking Bowyn is out of his league. Before Drew's football game and a Christmas gala he was supposed to host (notably featuring Bowyn as a guest performer), his niece gives him a friendship bracelet for good luck, spelling out an indecipherable mix of letters. Drew's brother is confused by what it means, but the niece clarifies: "It's an abbreviation of a Bowyn lyric. Don't you know anything?" Friendship bracelets have become a staple accessory — often with acronyms for notable songs and lyrics — for the "Eras Tour" after Swift's song " You're On Your Own, Kid " referenced making them. A song inspired by their romance In the grand finale of the film, Bowyn sings a Christmas love song at the gala and reveals she wrote it about Drew. (While Swift never confirms the inspiration for her songs, fans speculate that her songs "The Alchemy" and "So High School" are about Kelce.) The only snag for Bowyn? She's been told Drew isn't actually at the event and backed out of hosting. Nevertheless, she gives a speech declaring her love in the hopes he is watching a livestream of her performance. (During each "Eras Tour" show, fans can often find a livestream on social media of the show filmed by a concert attendee.) But surprisingly, Drew is there and catches her declaration of love. "I will always be your biggest cheerleader," he says, tying back to Swift's "You Belong With Me" once more, before asking her, "Are we doing this?" Bowyn responds, "Let's freaking go" — a PG version of a phrase Swift was caught on camera appearing to say after the Chiefs scored a touchdown in September 2023.A fire broke out Wednesday in the Tokyo apartment building where Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kuniko Inoguchi lives with her family, and two unidentified bodies have been found at the scene, police said, noting that her husband and one of their daughters remain unaccounted for. Four people were living in the 72-year-old House of Councillors member's residence and contact was made with Inoguchi and her other daughter, the metropolitan police said. Inoguchi's husband, Takashi, 80, is a professor emeritus of politics and international relations at the University of Tokyo. A report was made after 7 p.m. that a fire had started at the six-story apartment building in Bunkyo Ward of the Japanese capital. More than 30 firetrucks and other emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scene, located in an area lined with apartment buildings and houses, about 500 meters north of Tokyo Dome. The fire was subdued before 1 a.m. Thursday. Inoguchi was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2005 after being a professor at Sophia University. She served as minister in charge of addressing the declining birthrate and promoting gender equality. She has been a member of the House of Councillors since 2010 and is currently in her third term.None

Los Angeles Chargers (7-4) at Atlanta (6-5) Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, CBS BetMGM NFL Odds: Chargers by 1 1/2 Series record: Falcons lead 8-4. Against the spread: Chargers 7-3-1, Falcons 5-6. Last meeting: Chargers beat Falcons 20-17 on Nov. 6, 2022, in Atlanta. Last week: Ravens beat Chargers, 30-23; Falcons had bye week following 38-6 loss at Denver on Nov. 17. Chargers offense: overall (21), rush (13), pass (20), scoring (18). Chargers defense: overall (13), rush (10), pass (10), scoring (13). Falcons offense: overall (8), rush (14), pass (5), scoring (16). Falcons defense: overall (25), rush (19), pass (26), scoring (26). Turnover differential: Chargers plus-8, Falcons minus-3. Chargers player to watch RB Gus Edwards could move up as the lead back for Los Angeles as J.K Dobbins (knee) is expected to miss the game . Edwards was activated from injured reserve earlier this month following an ankle injury and had nine carries for 11 yards with a touchdown in Monday night’s 30-23 loss to Baltimore. Falcons player to watch WR Drake London has 61 catches, leaving him four away from becoming the first player in team history to have at least 65 receptions in each of his first three seasons. London has 710 receiving yards, leaving him 140 away from becoming the first player in team history with at least 850 in each of his first three seasons. RELATED COVERAGE 49ers LB Fred Warner has been playing through a broken bone in his ankle Resurgent and rested Saints seek a third straight victory when they host the Rams Lamar Jackson is 23-1 against the NFC. The Philadelphia Eagles present a formidable test Key matchup Falcons RB Bijan Robinson vs. Chargers run defense. Robinson was shut down by Denver, gaining only 35 yards on 12 carries, and the Atlanta offense couldn’t recover. The Chargers rank 10th in the league against the run, so it will be a challenge for the Falcons to find a way to establish a ground game with Robinson and Tyler Allgeier. A solid running attack would create an opportunity for offensive coordinator Zac Robinson to establish the play-action passes for quarterback Kirk Cousins. Key injuries Dobbins appeared to injure his right knee in the first half of the loss to the Ravens, though coach Jim Harbaugh did not provide details. ... The Falcons needed the bye to give a long list of injured players an opportunity to heal. WR WR KhaDarel Hodge (neck) did not practice on Wednesday. WR Darnell Mooney (Achilles), CB Kevin King (concussion), DL Zach Harrison (knee, Achilles) and WR Casey Washington (concussion) were hurt in the 38-6 loss at Denver on Nov. 17 and were limited on Wednesday. CB Mike Hughes (neck), nickel back Dee Alford (hamstring), ILB Troy Andersen (knee), TE Charlie Woerner (concussion) and ILB JD Bertrand (concussion) also were limited on Wednesday after not playing against Denver. C Drew Dalman (ankle) could return. The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . Series notes The Chargers have won the past three games in the series following six consecutive wins by the Falcons from 1991-2012. Los Angeles took a 33-30 overtime win in Atlanta in 2016 before the Chargers added 20-17 wins at home in 2020 and in Atlanta in 2022. The Falcons won the first meeting between the teams, 41-0 in San Diego in 1973. Stats and stuff Each team has built its record on success against the soft NFC South. Atlanta is 4-1 against division rivals. Los Angeles is 2-0 against the NFC South this season. The Chargers have a four-game winning streak against the division. ... Atlanta is 0-2 against AFC West teams, following a 22-17 loss to Kansas City and the lopsided loss at Denver. They will complete their tour of the AFC West with a game at the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 16. ... The Falcons are the league’s only first-place team with a negative points differential. Atlanta has been outscored 274-244. Fantasy tip The loss of Dobbins, who has rushed for eight touchdowns, could put more pressure on QB Justin Hebert and the passing game. Herbert’s favorite option has been WR Ladd McConkey, who has four TD receptions among his 49 catches for 698 yards. McConkey, the former University of Georgia standout who was drafted in the second round, could enjoy a productive return to the state against a Falcons defense that ranks only 26th against the pass. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

NoneUruguay's voters choose their next president in a close runoff with low stakes but much suspense

NoneFresh plea in Supreme Court seeks probe into U.S. indictment of Gautam AdaniThe unusual output of artists using AI for video has a message — but it may be one that we don’t exactly control. Type text into AI image and video generators, and you’ll often see outputs of unusual, sometimes creepy , pictures. In a way, this is a feature, not a bug, of generative AI. And artists are wielding this aesthetic to create a new storytelling art form. The tools, such as Midjourney to generate images, Runway and Sora to produce videos, and Luma AI to create 3D objects, are relatively cheap or free to use. They allow filmmakers without access to major studio budgets or soundstages to make imaginative short films for the price of a monthly subscription. I’ve studied these new works as the co-director of the AI for Media & Storytelling studio at the University of Southern California. Surveying the increasingly captivating output of artists from around the world, I partnered with curators Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells to produce the Flux Festival , a four-day showcase of experiments in AI filmmaking, in November 2024. While this work remains dizzyingly eclectic in its stylistic diversity, I would argue that it offers traces of insight into our contemporary world. I’m reminded that in both literary and film studies, scholars believe that as cultures shift, so do the way we tell stories . With this cultural connection in mind, I see five visual trends emerging in film. 1. Morphing, blurring imagery In her “NanoFictions” series, the French artist Karoline Georges creates portraits of transformation. In one short, “ The Beast ,” a burly man mutates from a two-legged human into a hunched, skeletal cat, before morphing into a snarling wolf. The metaphor – man is a monster – is clear. But what’s more compelling is the thrilling fluidity of transformation. There’s a giddy pleasure in seeing the figure’s seamless evolution that speaks to a very contemporary sensibility of shapeshifting across our many digital selves. Karoline Georges’ short film ‘The Beast.’ This sense of transformation continues in the use of blurry imagery that, in the hands of some artists, becomes an aesthetic feature rather than a vexing problem. Theo Lindquist’s “Electronic Dance Experiment #3,” for example, begins as a series of rapid-fire shots showing flashes of nude bodies in a soft smear of pastel colors that pulse and throb. Gradually it becomes clear that this strange fluidity of flesh is a dance. But the abstraction in the blur offers its own unique pleasure; the image can be felt as much as it can be seen. 2. The Surreal Thousands of TikTok videos demonstrate how cringey AI images can get, but artists can wield that weirdness and craft it into something transformative. The Singaporean artist known as Niceaunties creates videos that feature older women and cats, riffing on the concept of the “auntie” from Southeast and East Asian cultures. In one recent video, the aunties let loose clouds of powerful hairspray to hold up impossible towers of hair in a sequence that grows increasingly ridiculous. Even as they’re playful and poignant, the videos created by Niceaunties can pack a political punch. They comment on assumptions about gender and age, for example, while also tackling contemporary issues such as pollution. On the darker side, in a music video titled “Forest Never Sleeps,” the artist known as Doopiidoo offers up hybrid octopus women, guitar-playing rats, rooster pigs, and a wood-chopping ostrich man. The visual chaos is a sweet match for the accompanying death metal music, with surrealism returning as a powerful form. Doopiidoo’s uncanny music video ‘Forest Never Sleeps’ leverages artificial intelligence to create surreal visuals. 3. Dark tales The often-eerie vibe of so much AI-generated imagery works well for chronicling contemporary ills, a fact that several filmmakers use to unexpected effect. In “La Fenêtre,” Lucas Ortiz Estefanell of the AI agency SpecialGuestX pairs diverse image sequences of people and places with a contemplative voice-over to ponder ideas of reality, privacy, and the lives of artificially generated people. At the same time, he wonders about the strong desire to create these synthetic worlds. “When I first watched this video,” recalls the narrator, “the meaning of the image ceased to make sense.” In the music video titled “Closer,” based on a song by Iceboy Violet and Nueen, filmmaker Mau Morgó captures the world-weary exhaustion of Gen Z through dozens of youthful characters slumbering, often under the green glow of video screens. The snapshot of a generation that has come of age in the era of social media and now artificial intelligence, pictured here with phones clutched close to their bodies as they murmur in their sleep, feels quietly wrenching. The music video for ‘Closer’ spotlights a generation awash in screens. 4. Nostalgia Sometimes filmmakers turn to AI to capture the past. Rome-based filmmaker Andrea Ciulu uses AI to reimagine 1980s East Coast hip-hop culture in “On These Streets,” which depicts the city’s expanse and energy through breakdancing as kids run through alleys and then spin magically up into the air. Ciulu says that he wanted to capture New York’s urban milieu, all of which he experienced at a distance, from Italy, as a kid. The video thus evokes a sense of nostalgia for a mythic time and place to create a memory that is also hallucinatory. Andrea Ciulu’s short film ‘On These Streets.’ Similarly, David Slade’s “Shadow Rabbit” borrows black-and-white imagery reminiscent of the 1950s to show small children discovering miniature animals crawling about on their hands. In just a few seconds, Slade depicts the enchanting imagination of children and links it to generated imagery, underscoring AI’s capacities for creating fanciful worlds. 5. New times, new spaces In his video for the song “The Hardest Part” by Washed Out, filmmaker Paul Trillo creates an infinite zoom that follows a group of characters down the seemingly endless aisle of a school bus, through the high school cafeteria, and out onto the highway at night. The video perfectly captures the zoominess of time and the collapse of space for someone young and in love haplessly careening through the world. The freewheeling camera also characterizes the work of Montreal-based duo Vallée Duhamel , whose music video “The Pulse Within” spins and twirls, careening up and around characters who are cut loose from the laws of gravity. In both music videos, viewers experience time and space as a dazzling, topsy-turvy vortex where the rules of traditional time and space no longer apply. In Vallée Duhamel’s ‘The Pulse Within,’ the rules of physics no longer apply. Right now, in a world where algorithms increasingly shape everyday life , many works of art are beginning to reflect how intertwined we’ve become with computational systems. What if machines are suggesting new ways to see ourselves, as much as we’re teaching them to see like humans? This article was originally published on The Conversation by Holly Willis at University of Southern California. Read the original article here . Movies A.I. Technology

Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs leaves game because of concussion

Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record highThe Tar Heels (5-1) play Indiana in the championship game on Monday. The Hoosiers upset No. 18 Baylor 73-65 in Sunday's first semifinal. Ustby made 6 of 8 shots from the floor with a 3-pointer for North Carolina on the way to her first double-double of the season. Donarski hit 6 of 10 shots with a pair of 3-pointers. Maddie Webber led the Wildcats (4-2) with 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Lara Edmanson pitched in with 11 points and seven rebounds. The Tar Heels held Villonova's leading scorer Jasmine Bascoe to two points after she came in averaging 16.6 per game. Bascoe missed all seven of her shots — three from distance — and made 2 of 4 at the free-throw line. Ustby had seven points and Donarski scored five to guide the Tar Heels to a 17-7 lead after one quarter. Donarski scored five more in the third quarter to help North Carolina turn a 30-18 lead at halftime into a 44-23 advantage heading to the final period. North Carolina shot 40% from the floor, made 5 of 17 from beyond the arc (29.4%) and 4 of 6 at the foul line. Villanova shot 23.5% overall but made 5 of 18 from distance (27.8%) and 7 of 10 free throws. The Tar Heels scored 15 points off of 21 Villanova turnovers. They turned it over 14 times but it led to only three points for the Wildcats. North Carolina outscored Villanova 30-14 in the paint and never trailed. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball