Posted on 09/02/2025 8:17:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Miss England is controversial at the best of times, not least for its now-banned swimwear round. Each year, models who make it to the semi-finals have to choose categories to compete in to secure a place in the final.
The choices include the Bare Face round, where contestants are judged on their looks without make-up, and the Talent round, in which they showcase a special skill. Now, the pageant is causing a stir after introducing an AI round – in which contestants have to get as many bookings as they can for an AI-generated version of themselves.
Only three of the competition's 32 semi-finalists have decided to enter. Many are unsure whether it would help or hinder their chances of winning a place in the final. As part of the inaugural wildcard AI round, each model will work with a company to create their virtual, AI-generated avatar - and these will then be pitched to brands and agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
Neither, it is just plain damn stupid. It would be like playing cards in Vegas and having all aces and folding. Just stupid!
“… have to get as many bookings as they can for an AI-generated version of themselves.”
I hate to think what kind of images AI will generate of beauty queens, especially if young muslim men direct their creations.
Not from a 1970s-1980s dystopian science fiction novel. Sadly.
There were dystopian novels in those days such as Then Beggars Could Ride by Ray Faraday Nelson (Laser Books, 1976) about the near future everyone knew was coming true in which the world ran out of oil.
I read that Arab fathers often agree to pay for the most popular type of cosmetic surgery for their daughters, the nose job.
The guy that gave Phillip K. Dick LSD?
Nuclear powered fission breeder reactors will be the adjacent step to provide the power for coal conversion into petroleum products. Breeder reactors produce more fissionable fuel than they consume by neutron bombarded U238 (the non fissionable uranium) into fissionable material. From Wiki, Breeder reactors work by using fast-moving neutrons to convert fertile material, such as depleted uranium (U-238) or thorium, into fissile (fuel) material like plutonium (Pu-239) or uranium-233 (U-233). This process creates more fuel than the reactor consumes, allowing for a much more efficient use of the nuclear fuel supply by recycling spent fuel and utilizing abundant fertile isotopes like U-238 and thorium.
Perhaps in the future nuclear fusion reactors will give us unlimited power. However, today nuclear fission reactors are the bridge to the future.
We have an abundance of U238 and thorium just waiting to be converted into a fissionable element to power reactors.
Nuclear powered fission breeder reactors will be the adjacent step to provide the power for coal conversion into petroleum products. Breeder reactors produce more fissionable fuel than they consume by neutron bombarded U238 (the non fissionable uranium) into fissionable material. From Wiki, Breeder reactors work by using fast-moving neutrons to convert fertile material, such as depleted uranium (U-238) or thorium, into fissile (fuel) material like plutonium (Pu-239) or uranium-233 (U-233). This process creates more fuel than the reactor consumes, allowing for a much more efficient use of the nuclear fuel supply by recycling spent fuel and utilizing abundant fertile isotopes like U-238 and thorium.
Perhaps in the future nuclear fusion reactors will give us unlimited power. However, today nuclear fission reactors are the bridge to the future.
We have an abundance of U238 and thorium just waiting to be converted into a fissionable element to power reactors.
double post. SORRY ABOUT THAT.
The images would be baaaaaaad ...
🐐
Yes. Twice.
But Dick said he was unable to write under its influence. And his ideas had already been wild enough long before, as he wrote prolifically under heavy amphetamine doses.
“Dick told Rolling Stone in 1975 that he wrote his most famous “LSD novel,” The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, before ever trying the drug.”
and
“his 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly was the first he wrote without the stimulant.(amphetamines).
What amazed me is that he was married 5 times and still could write.
Has anyone between able to write under it's influence?
Isn’t that the book where he predicted Global Warming?
Excellent question. I have no idea.
Whenever I hear about Eric Clapton in Cream or other musicians playing while on LSD I can barely believe it.
Good writer’s story (the person who told it said it’s probably phony).
A writer woke up in the middle of the night with a terrific idea for a story. Struggled to find pen and notepad and wrote a note to himself before he forgot and went back to sleep.
In the morning he read his note: “A terrific idea for a story.”
Whenever I hear about Eric Clapton in Cream or other musicians playing while on LSD I can barely believe it.
Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter on LSD.
Can’t remember. At the time the science fiction conventions I attended had panels on the new ice age (because weather was breaking records for being cold and icy). Time and Newsweek had articles on it and said Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac was because it froze over so solidly he could stand on it. Dramatic covers of magazines and books showed the tops of buildings in Manhattan covered with ice and barely visible from the ice below (Universe 2 was a good one).
That’s not so surprising.
I forgot that baseball story.
He was quoted later by a reporter as saying he forgot that was his day in the rotation to pitch so he took LSD without intending to upset his game.
https://baseballhall.org/discover/dock-ellis-journey-helped-shine-a-light-for-others
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