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If we could make a list of the internet's most beloved topics, weird animals would definitely have their place in the top 10. It seems that finding weird and unique species is something everyone thrives in, and although it is a cool thing to come across a unique animal, there is no need to create one with photoshop, or if you're doing so, please do not try to trick people into thinking it actually exists.
Many people believed that there was an actual black lion alive but many of these pictures are just edited picture.
credit:
https://www.boredpanda.com/fake-news-photos-viral-photoshop/

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In Star Wars: Rogue One, Princess Leia was remastered and critics and fans were scathing about the quality of the CGI, which saw the face of a young Carrie Fisher pasted onto the body of another actress. Deemed unrealistic, with particular negative attention shown to the eyes and the texture of the skin, the CGI wasn't considered a fitting representation and ruined the ending of the film for many.

One of the earliest deepfake creators, Derpfakes, posted this redo on YouTube and people have gone wild for it. The smile, the eyes, it's all spot on, with excellent face tracking. Star Wars fans have commented, claiming they wish the original film could have been created using this technology.

Luckily, the Star Wars team learned from the mistake and used a totally different process for Fisher's scenes in Rise of Skywalker, utilising canned footage of Fisher from The Force Awakens.

credits: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/deepfake-examples

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Princess Leia Remastered...Again | Derpfakes

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How governments are tackling anti Covid-19 vaccine misinformation 

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How governments are tackling anti Covid-19 vaccine misinformation 

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https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/how-governments-are-tackling-anti-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation

Anti-vaxxers are turning social media into a cesspool of Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories as these platforms and governments struggle to quell the growing wave of falsehoods.

False claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips, can cause autism and sterility are fuelling vaccine hesitancy all over the world, undermining efforts to end the nearly two-year-long pandemic that has battered the global economy and hurt livelihoods.

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SINGAPORE - Anti-vaxxers are turning social media into a cesspool of Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories as these platforms and governments struggle to quell the growing wave of falsehoods.

False claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips, can cause autism and sterility are fuelling vaccine hesitancy all over the world, undermining efforts to end the nearly two-year-long pandemic that has battered the global economy and hurt livelihoods.

"People who are exposed to a large amount of misleading and false information about the virus, especially on social media, and discuss news mostly within their echo chambers, will be more likely to endorse conspiracy theories," Dr Maria Chayinska, a social psychology researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile told Emerging Europe news site.

"It is not merely a response to their perceived anxiety but a normative group behaviour," she added.

Social media operators have come under increased scrutiny for their role in the spread of unsubstantiated information, with governments pushing them to clamp down on false claims and hoaxes.

The social media platforms have taken several remedial steps, including removing false information about Covid-19 vaccines, banning all anti-vaccine content and permanently suspending repeat offenders' accounts.

A report in March by British non-profit Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that almost two-third of Covid-19 misinformation came from 12 people, who have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms.

Among the "disinformation dozen" is lawyer-environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a nephew of late US President John F. Kennedy, who linked the pandemic to the 5G roll-out.

An exasperated US President Joe Biden took aim at vaccine resistance on Sept 9 by mandating Covid-19 jabs for most federal employees while urging employers to get their staff to follow suit or conduct weekly tests.

Over in Britain, anti-vaccination advocates have staged protests, stormed schools, disseminated fake vaccine information and threatened legal action.

The government, public health officials and other organisations have attempted to address the spread of misinformation by roping in prominent community leaders to spread messages such as how to find accurate data about Covid-19 vaccines.

It has also come up with a novel online game called Go Viral that educates players on the dangers of fake news by plunging them into a world of misinformation. Research showed that playing a single round can reduce perceived reliability of fake news by an average of 21 per cent.

In Europe, where anti-vaccination protests have been held across the continent as extremists and far-right politicians keep up the social media spread of conspiracy theories about vaccines, the European Commission has proposed more fact checking and algorithm changes for social media companies.

Under a revised code of practice proposed by Brussels in May, companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would need to show why a particular material is disseminated and prove that false information is being blocked.

False claims about Covid-19 vaccines are fuelling vaccine hesitancy all over the world. PHOTO: NYTIMES

In Asia, Malaysian Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has warned "annoying" anti-vaxxer groups that the government will "make life very difficult for you and continue to make life difficult for you".

Malaysia has taken several steps to check disinformation spread by anti-vaxxer groups, with the health ministry recently lodging several police reports against them for spreading fake news and threatening public health.

The authorities have also arrested and charged several individuals for spreading fake news on Covid-19.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has set up a fact-checking website, which has already put up more than 500 articles debunking myths and alerting the public to scams related to Covid-19.

In neighbouring Indonesia, anti-vaccine discourse is often a mix of Islamic views, global Covid-19 conspiracy theories and domestic anti-government sentiments.

A considerable number of anti-vaccine videos on TikTok have been made by religious micro-influencers, noted a paper by ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute researchers published in June this year.

The Indonesian government has asked social media companies to remove misinformation and block accounts that spread misinformation, while also intensifying its vaccination campaign on social media by using celebrities and influencers.

A government task force has also been set up to identify hoaxes and fake news, working with organisations such as Unicef and home-grown Anti-Slander Society (Mafindo) to help counter misinformation.

In Japan, books by doctors opposing vaccinations are filling best-seller sections at bookstores, while some anti-vaccine groups have signed petitions, filed lawsuits and demonstrated in the streets to call for vaccinations to be halted.

On the flip side, a group of doctors and health practitioners have rolled out the Cov-Navi website which provides accurate, easy-to-understand information.

The country has also received a little help from Corowa-kun, a cheerful cartoon dog chatbot to spread lessons learnt from overseas vaccination efforts and to counter inaccurate information in social media.

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How governments are tackling anti Covid-19 vaccine misinformation

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SINGAPORE - Anti-vaxxers are turning social media into a cesspool of Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories as these platforms and governments struggle to quell the growing wave of falsehoods. False claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips, can cause autism and sterility are fuelling vaccine hesitancy all over the world, undermining efforts to end the nearly two-year-long pandemic that has battered the global economy and hurt livelihoods.

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Markets and the economic cost of distribution: Dawn contributor

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Markets and the economic cost of distribution: Dawn contributor

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https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/markets-and-the-economic-cost-of-disinformation-dawn-contributor
a completely unauthentic piece of news is posted on social media platforms it gains a momentum of its own. Some 'experts' and 'anchors then blurt this 'information' on electronic media and some owners of media houses use these opinions expressed in talk shows as news stories in print.

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ISLAMABAD (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Markets can allocate resources efficiently when there is competition among sellers and buyers. In order to have competitive markets certain conditions have to be met.

Among others, there have to be multiple buyers and sellers who have the relevant information to make rational decisions and firms should have the freedom to enter and exit the market without any restrictions.

In Pakistan, markets have been rigged by a small segment of politically influential players who receive preferential treatment through land, taxes, tariffs, subsidies etc. Collusive practices and cartelisation favour 'insiders' who do not easily allow 'outsiders' to enter the market by unleashing a plethora of licences, permits, clearances and no-objection certificates.

Access to finance is restricted to only those with well-established businesses, those enjoying the right contacts and who can offer securities and collaterals (however inflated their realisable values may be on paper).

Newcomers who may have innovative business proposals have hardly any chance to raise capital. While barriers to entry are quite strong, exit is discouraged even when the firms are socialising losses and privatising profits through a complex maze of government-granted subsidies, exemptions, refinancing schemes and concessions.

In the name of protecting labour employment, inefficient firms are not allowed to die. There is little realisation that new efficient and innovative firms that take their place are likely to create many more productive jobs in the economy. Many stock market-listed companies declare losses year after year while their owners enjoy lavish lifestyles.

They live in palatial houses, drive expensive cars, holiday abroad, their children study overseas and they maintain foreign bank accounts and offshore companies.

The grant of tax amnesties by successive governments provide persuasive evidence for the existence of this phenomenon. Trillions of rupees of non-taxed incomes were parked outside the country or in other forms inside the country.

Poor public policies such as guaranteed rates of return in dollars on equity raised locally or through over-invoicing have caused huge accretion to public debt stock but made lucky investors, who have been approved by the government or its regulatory agencies, billionaires or multimillionaires.

Unauthentic news posted on social media platforms gains a momentum of its own.

These existing market distortions were already doing much damage but on top of these an unanticipated phenomenon that has surfaced recently in the form of disinformation distributed and disseminated widely and swiftly by social media has exacerbated the situation.

Economists have won Nobel Prizes for their work on 'asymmetric information' - a further deviation from the assumptions of competitive markets. Buyers and sellers do not possess exactly the same information about an economic transaction.

The well-known Market for Lemons is a highly insightful piece of research that highlights this problem aptly. The field of behavioural economics and finance has enlightened us that people are not always rational in their decision-making as they cannot process all the relevant information in a given span of time to arrive at a rational conclusion.

The 2008 global financial crisis exposed the myth of the rational economic actor. It is now documented that markets work on the basis of sentiments, emotions such as greed and fear, biases, social influences, intuition and past experiences. Bandwagon effects, anchoring bias, procrastination and nudging have emerged as new ways of thinking about how economic players make decisions and how markets function.

It is in this context that the spread of motivated or planted fake, biased or unverified news - all bundled under disinformation - has assumed alarming proportions in deviating from the basic tenets of well-functioning competitive markets.

The speed at which disinformation travels and the extent of its outreach have rattled markets. We used to grumble or complain about irresponsible journalism but that pales into insignificance compared to the harm that is being caused by instantaneous dissemination of unverified information that is distributed through Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media.

We ought to recognise that, by and large, journalists and reporters in reputable media houses spend a lot of time and effort to sift, verify and establish the veracity of the stories they file. Further there is editorial review and in many cases an in-house ombudsman. Indiscretions do occur but damage control is always possible.

However, once a completely unauthentic piece of news is posted on social media platforms it gains a momentum of its own. Some 'experts' and 'anchors then blurt this 'information' on electronic media and some owners of media houses use these opinions expressed in talk shows as news stories in print.

Market sentiments and economic players' actions are influenced by these views. This happens more so in case of equity, foreign exchange, foreign trade, commodities and financial markets. Economic fundamentals are set aside and drowned in cacophony causing huge confusion in the minds of market participants.

Non-state actors who started disinformation having their own agenda therefore gain the upper hand and drive market sentiments, forcing decisions that run contrary to economic prudence. Policymakers feel helpless in countering this sentiment as the disinformation was targeted in the first instance to make them look bad in the eyes of the public.

Governments in democratic or authoritarian states do not realise how much damage they are doing by imposing restrictions or suppressing freedom of expression of journalists and reporters all over the world.

On the contrary, they should be given full facilitation to carry out their professional duties as they can provide a strong countervailing force against the ever-growing intrusion of those engaged in disinformation creating market dislocation. Investors require calm and tranquil conditions and a level-playing field. They are averse to a rigged market structure on the top of which are built grooves of turbulence sparked by disinformation.

It is in Pakistan's collective economic interest to allow journalists - foreign and local - to move around freely to sift and report facts as our weak investor sentiment cannot bear the burden of the avalanche of disinformation.

At the same time, market distortions creating rent-seeking opportunities for a select few while weakening the competitive markets need to be eliminated.

The writer is the author of Pakistan: The Economy of an Elitist State. The paper is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 23 news media organisations.

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Markets and the economic cost of disinformation: Dawn contributor

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ISLAMABAD (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Markets can allocate resources efficiently when there is competition among sellers and buyers. In order to have competitive markets certain conditions have to be met. Among others, there have to be multiple buyers and sellers who have the relevant information to make rational decisions and firms should have the freedom to enter and exit the market without any restrictions.

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"You're A Disgrace" The President Meets An Epic Little Girl - The President Show | Comedy Central

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Little girl calls “Donald Trump” a “disgrace”

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Little girl calls “Donald Trump” a “disgrace”

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There’s a video clip going around Twitter right now, showing a young girl approaching a man who looks like Donald Trump (you can only see “the president” from behind) and calling him “a disgrace to the world.” The Twitter video is actually clipped from The President Show, a Comedy Central series starring Anthony Atamanuik. While Atamanuik’s backside does an extremely convincing Trump — though he appears to be shorter than the real Trump — the wig is where the comparison stops. In the original, non-freebooted version of the clip, it’s much easier to tell that he’s not actually President Trump. Still, Atamanuik — responding to Gizmodo’s coverage of the clip — insists the girl’s reaction was completely unscripted. Here’s hoping this small child ends up in the vicinity of the real Donald Trump very soon.

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"You're A Disgrace" The President Meets An Epic Little Girl - The President Show | Comedy Central

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Fake news debunked: Hossan Leong didn't die in Malaysia car crash

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The article says Leong "crashed into the back of a lorry in the Malaysian state of Johor" while driving to Malacca.

It quoted Batu Pahat district police and uses the names of real victims and district police.
However, the article lifts heavily from news reports published in September last year, about a separate incident.

Leong's clarification was met with relief and jokes.

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Local personality Hossan Leong has hit back at an article stating that he died in a 'tragic car crash' in Malaysia.

Website Global News published a report claiming that the 47-year-old was killed after a car he was driving crashed into the back of a lorry.

The headline of the story read: "BREAKING: Singapore Comedian and Actor Hossan Leong Dies In A Tragic Car Crash"

In the report, it was stated that Hossan Leong was 'taking a nap' when the accident took place. The author then said that the Singaporean had to be helped out of the vehicle by passersby, and later 'collapsed' and 'died at the spot'.

Also included in the article were photos showing the supposed accident. The source of the images is unclear.

Following the release of the story, Hossan took to Facebook to refute the fake news.

In a video, he said that he was alerted to what happened by his friend, Kiss92 DJ Joshua Simon.

Said Hossan Leong in the video:

"I just want to say it came to my attention from a good friend of mine, Joshua Simon from Kiss92, that there has been an article online about me dying in a car crash on the way to KL.

"I didn't want to read the article, I think it's really stupid.

"It's fake news and I just want to say that I am well and that if you come across the article, please don't share it because it is not true, and yeah, just want to let you know that I am doing very very well thank you very much.

"Thank you for all you care, your love and your concern. It means a lot to me."

"Thank you very much, have a great weekend everyone. Be safe, and remember, love everyone."

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Fake news debunked: Hossan Leong didn't die in Malaysia car crash

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Local personality Hossan Leong has hit back at an article stating that he died in a 'tragic car crash' in Malaysia. Website Global News published a report claiming that the 47-year-old was killed after a car he was driving crashed into the back of a lorry.

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A white suit. A helmet. A dark visor. Mr Templeton, they believed, had photographed a spaceman.  Back in 1964, Jim Templeton, a fireman from the English city of Carlisle, was spending an afternoon out with his family when he snapped a photograph that would take the world by storm. Templeton was taking candid shots of his young daughter without much thought, but when he got home and had the film developed, he noticed what has now become known as the the Solway Spaceman.

The photo shows what many people say is a person in some form of space suit. 1964 places the incident right in the middle of the space race, and the photo made headlines around the world. Kodak even analyzed the photo and their experts said it was authentic, lending to the spaceman theory.

Templeton noted that only he, his daughter, and his wife were on site when the photos was taken. So who was this mysterious spaceman? The answer lies in the other photos taken on the film roll.
Other photos show Templeton's wife wearing a dress that lines up with the look of the spaceman. The photos taken on the roll just prior to the mysterious one show the wife in a position that would place her near the correct spot of the spaceman.

It's also noted that Templeton took the photos with a viewfinder that let him see 70% of the frame. This meant that he was unable to see the full frame of the photo, and thus missed his wife standing in the back. The photo itself was also overexposed, thus leading to the strange look of his wife's back.