UnkNuk

AI: Can you tell that these 'photographs' are artificial? Whether it be artwork, literature, music or photography, content created by artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise. So advanced is the content being generated that it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what is real and what is artificial. .... The potential pitfalls of such content were recently demonstrated when German artist Boris Eldagsen entered this year's Sony World Photography Award with an AI-generated image and won. Mr Eldagsen refused the award and stated he was just being a "cheeky monkey" to see if any of the judges "knew or suspected that [the image] was AI-generated". "AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this," he added. More at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-65562658?utm_medium=photos.fri.rd.20230630.436.1&utm_source=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=email-2022

A mansion in Malibu, California, was made to look like Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse as part of promotional efforts for the new "Barbie" movie People from a small farming village in Aliaga, Philippines, are covered in banana leaves and mud as they take part in an annual ritual celebrating the feast of St. John the Baptist Vanilla the chimpanzee, who had been caged for her entire life, reacts after seeing the sky for the first time at the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. The 28-year-old chimp moved to the sanctuary last year and had been quarantined and acclimating to her new home. More at: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-22-june-29-ctrp/?utm_medium=photos.fri.rd.20230630.436.1&utm_source=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=email-2022

Gotta love Vanni

The Women's World Cup starts on July 20th (do we have a thread for the Women's National Team or should we just use this one?). FIFA has released the official song for the tournament: and the official chant:

The Reservoir by David Duchovny (of X-files fame). Not a bad effort. It's a novella that takes place in Covid New York. A guy who's been holed up in his apartment overlooking Central Park because of the virus notices someone in a distant apartment turning their lights on/off. He begins to think they're trying to send a message and he tries to signal back. Things get weird.

I enjoy "Survivor". And the "Amazing Race".

A mere $69 million? Pffft! Chump change.

So Havertz and Rice are replacements for Partey and Xhaka who are rumoured to be leaving?

To be honest, I don't know that much about Declan Rice. But U$133 million? Good lord there's a lot of money floating around the English Premier League. I hope he's worth it. And, apparently, Arsenal has also signed Kai Havertz from Chelsea, who I also don't know much about. But that was only for U$82 million. https://theathletic.com/4627559/2023/06/28/arsenal-transfer-news-havertz/

Canada 2 Guadeloupe 2 Well, that was disappointing. The first half was lack-lustre with Guadeloupe actually taking a 1-0 lead. We looked like a throw-back to the Canadian teams of old. Second half was much better. Canada played with much more energy. Took a 2-1 lead and appeared to be on their way to a victory only for Guadeloupe to score late and tie it up. Most of the new guys (and there seemed to be many) played okay. Ali Ahman was chosen player of the match by whoever chooses these things and this Whitecap fan thought it was well-deserved. He played well in his first match for Canada. Former Whitecap Lucas Cavalleni scored the first goal. Only the first game. Not a major problem. But still......Guadeloupe?

But the memories! Who needs Bedard when we can look back and remember things like that 2-1 win over Anaheim on Mar 19th? Or that 3-0 win against Chicago on April 8th? You can't replace things like that.

MLS writer Sam Jones opines: "Point being, it’s hard to see this magically improving now that Bradley is gone. Which means Toronto are in a terrible place to be in any sport: Stuck with a “win-now” roster that isn’t winning. The group as a whole is old, the young players have struggled to improve and there are a whole bunch of contracts that are relatively new, relatively expensive and really, really hard to move on. It feels like they need to do a renovation of the entire thing beyond Bradley, but parting ways with Bradley is the easy part. Reshaping the roster will take time." https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/your-tuesday-kickoff-is-bob-bradley-s-exit-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-for-toron

Vancouver Whitecaps FC's Ryan Gauld named Player of the Matchday https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/vancouver-whitecaps-fc-s-ryan-gauld-named-player-of-the-matchday

And network tv loses another soccer league: https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/soccer/news/watch-bundesliga-canada-dazn-live-stream-germany/q13gxkp5gicx6qzak23hn71u The German top flight has a new home in Canada, and fans across the nation can now find a collection of European soccer all in one place. Streaming service DAZN has penned a three-year deal to become the new Bundesliga broadcast rights-holder in Canada, adding the Big 5 league to their portfolio that already boasts a number of other European and North American sports leagues and competitions. The deal, which also includes broadcast rights for the 2.Bundesliga, Germany's second tier, begins in the 2023/24 season and runs through the 2025/26 campaign, which will bring Canadian soccer fans right up to the 2026 World Cup to be hosted in their country.

Each team has a B which cancel out. Each team has a B+ that cancel out. Which means it comes down to: Team 1: A+, B+, C Team 2: A-, A-, A Comparing Team 2 to Team 1: A- is 2 steps lower than A+. A- is 1 step higher than B+. A is 5 steps higher than C. So Team 2 = (-2+1+5) = +4 over Team 1. Team 2 wins. Any questions?

The Concacaf Gold Cup tournament started on Saturday. Canada's first game is on Tuesday at 4pm against Guadeloupe. The game will be on - you guessed it! - OneSoccer and Fubo.

Whitecaps 3 LAFC 2 Well, that was a pleasant (and entertaining) surprise. Vancouver gets its first road win of the season and their first win at LAFC ever. The Caps dominated most of the first half. LA scored a late goal in the first and came alive in the second. But Vancouver soaked up the pressure. Many good performances. And even though he didn't score (again), Cordova showed some signs of life.

The LAFC/Whitecaps game on Saturday will be on TSN1 at 7:30.

Highlights from the Colorado/Vancouver game yesterday :

The Whitecaps game against (in) Colorado is on TSN tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6:30pm. Colorado is at the bottom of the Western Conference table so this should be three points for our boys but these are the Whitecaps we're talking about.

Just doing some quick math here. Son is currently making around 13 million $US per year for the next two years. The Saudis are offering him 32 million $US per year for the next four years. That's dedication to a team! (Tempered only by the fact that Tottenham would have to agree to the transfer and they don't want to. At least not at the price the Saudis are currently offering for his transfer fee.)

Life in the cosmos: JWST hints at lower number of habitable planets For the second time, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has looked for and failed to find a thick atmosphere on an exoplanet in on one of the most exciting planetary systems known. Astronomers report today that there is probably no tantalizing atmosphere on the planet TRAPPIST-1 c, just as they reported months ago for its neighbour TRAPPIST-1 b. There is still a chance that some of the five other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might have thick atmospheres containing geologically and biologically interesting compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane or oxygen. But the two planets studied so far seem to be without, or almost without, an atmosphere. Because planets of this type are common around many stars, “that would definitely reduce the amount of planets which might be habitable”, says Sebastian Zieba, an exoplanet researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. He and his colleagues describe the finding in Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01983-1?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

The NBA Draft is on Thursday. The #1 pick will be Victor Wembanyama. Here's a few excerpts about him from "The Athletics" Draft Guide: "Wembanyama is the highest-upside prospect to enter the NBA since LeBron James." "He is a historic prospect, one well within the tapestry of former elite big prospects such as Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan." "It is somewhat easy to envision Wembanyama’s upside as being the best player on planet Earth someday," Not much pressure on the young guy.

Yes, from what I've read most of the teams will be "B" squads. But we'll get a chance to see some of our young guys and our possible future. I hope Ahmed is healthy enough to play. And, it goes without saying, the games won't be available on network television.