How to help protect abortion access in states where it’s most threatened

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Several states, including Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri have recently passed laws that effectively ban abortion. They prohibit the procedure just weeks into pregnancy and, in some cases, make providing abortion care punishable by a years-long prison sentence. 

While these bills have yet to go into effect, and will likely be stalled by lawsuits challenging their constitutionality, the bans have prompted outrage and panic. 

As legal battles play out in courts around the country, it’s important to remember that state-based grassroots groups and clinics will need even more support to serve patients who continue to seek abortion care.  Read more…

More about Women, Abortion Rights, How To Help, Abortion Access, and Social Good

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AI is now making ‘Joe Rogan’ talk about his chimp hockey team

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Say hello to Joe Rogan: podcaster, entertainer of problematic views, and man who believes that feeding his all chimp hockey team a diet of bone broth and elk meat will give them the power to rip your balls off. 

Or, at least that’s what the unaware listener might believe after listening to an entirely AI-generated clip of the popular podcaster. Unlike Rogan’s typical totally coherent rants, this one is a total fabrication. 

“The replica of Rogan’s voice the team created was produced using a text-to-speech deep learning system they developed called RealTalk,” explained the researchers behind the clip in a blog post, “which generates life-like speech using only text inputs.” Read more…

More about Artificial Intelligence, Ai, Deep Fakes, Tech, and Artificial Intelligence

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Robert Pattinson is reportedly your next Batman

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Robert Pattinson is the next Dark Knight, it appears.

When Batman returns to the big screen in 2021, the face behind his trademark cowl will reportedly belong to the Twilight star, sources told Variety. 

The publisher reports the deal hasn’t been 100 percent sealed, but that Pattinson is expected to be confirmed soon. 

Deadline, however, reported the star has not yet been confirmed, noting that director Matt Reeves and Warner Bros merely have Pattinson on a short list alongside Tolkien star Nicholas Hoult.

Ben Affleck bowed out of his role in Warner Bros.’ DC Extended Universe with an announcement in late January. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Armie Hammer, The Batman, and Entertainment

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Snapchat’s ‘gender-swap’ filter exposes the internet’s casual transphobia

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a face filter for everything, from putting puppy ears on your head to horrifically swapping your face with inanimate objects. 

The latest filter trend on Snapchat is gender. Yep, just gender. This filter, in particular, captured people’s attention in a way that others haven’t, becoming so popular that people have re-downloaded Snapchat, an app seemingly being left in the social media dust, to use it.

The filter is fairly simple: It swaps your features for traditionally feminine or masculine ones. When it rolled out last week, the internet had a field day, with users fantasizing about what it would be like to swap genders. But it wasn’t all fun and games for the trans community, who had to witness both their cis friends and strangers suddenly turning the act of “switching genders” into the latest viral joke. Read more…

More about Snapchat, Gender, Snapchat Filters, Trans Community, and Social Good

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