downtime»chipchat
» JOEL BURGESS REPORTS ON THE UNUSUAL SIDE OF TECH NEWS.Millionsgetbehind
Facebook group tobreak
intoArea 51
“LETSSEETHEMALIENS.”A Facebookeventpagetitled‘StormArea51,
TheyCan’tStopAllofUs’hasamassedover
1.2millionattendees,withanothermillion
partiesindicatingthattheyareinterestedin
attendingtheevent.Whileeverythingfrom
theplannedSeptember 20 datetothe
recommendedstrategyofNarutorunning
(armsstraight,headdown)fasterthanthe
guard’sbulletsindicatesit’snothingmore
thana gag,thelevelofinterestprompted
theUSAirForcetoissuea statementtoThe
WashingtonPostsayingit woulddiscourage
peoplefromattemptingtoentertheactive
trainingfacility.Whileit maynotbe
authentic,it certainlyhasbeencatalystfor
aninvasionofextraterrestrialmemes.MobburnshomeofcryptoPonzischemefounder
CRYPTOSCHEMEPROMISEDTODOUBLEMONEYIN 15 DAYS.Amanbelievedtobebehinda BitcoininvestmentschemeinLadysmith,
SouthAfrica,hasfoundhimselfatthehotendofsomevigilantejusticeby
themobheswindled.SpheleleMbathawasaccusedbythemobofoperating
BitcoinWallets,a cryptocurrencyinvestmentschemethatpromoted100%
investmentreturnsinjusttwoweeks.Thearrangementturnedouttobe,
unsurprisingly,a Ponzischemethatwasacceptingclosetotwomillion
Rand($205,000)a dayatitspeak.Afterinevitablyrunningoutofmoney,
anangrymobof1,500investorsamassedoutsidethe‘BitcoinWallets
headquarters’,whichalsohappenstobeMbatha’sLadysmithresidence,
andthensetitonfire.AI used to put Stallone
in Terminator 2
YouTuber using Deepfakes to recast iconic films.
There have been enough controversial applications of DeepFake technologies to
make it clear that it can be a powerful tool for malice if not used appropriately.
One YouTuber, however, is keen to show that Deepfakes can also be a powerful tool
for good by retroactively recasting iconic movies with different actors. While his
latest target was to throw comedian Jim Carrey into the iconic horror thriller The
Shining, the animation programmer known at Ctrl Alt Face has put Silvester
Stallone into Te r m i n a to r 2, swapped the Joker from the Dark Knight into other
Heath Ledger films and merged Fight Club’s narrator and Tyler Durden for an even
weirder plotline.Escobar family accuse
Elon Musk of stealing IP
for consumer
flamethrower
THE BORING COMPANY WAR WITH
MEDELLIN CARTEL OVER WEAPON
DESIGN.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is never too far from
controversy, but a new copyright
infringement has pitted him against an
opponent that is a little more dangerous
than the entrepreneur is used to. Roberto
Escobar, the elder brother of the late drug
kingpin Pablo Escobar and head honcho at
Escobar Inc., has accused The Boring
Company founder of stealing the design
for a consumer flamethrower that was
released at the beginning of 2018. The
Boring Company sold its limited 20,000-
unit run within the first month of sales and
hasn’t released additional units since, so we
suspect Escobar Inc. is just stealing a little
of Musk’s thunder (and fire) to make a buck.d