No major commotions except for brief argument, police confirm

Mar 27 2023

The video shows a small commotion that happened outside the National Stadium, yesterday, before the Match between Malta and Italy.

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This was only a small argument that was sorted in no time thanks to the excellent work of the Police outside the stadium.

A Police Spokesperson spoke to Malta Daily this morning, and confirmed that although Ta’ Qali saw more than 16,000 people, no major incidents were reported and everything worked out as planned.

We take this opportunity to thank everyone involved.

#MaltaDaily

Realistic AI image of Pope Francis causes online stir

Mar 27 2023

We all noticed Artificial Intelligence was making leaps and bounds in how accurately it portrays image.

However, one of the latest images generated by AI has caused an online stir after many people seemingly fell for a portrait of Pope Francis donning a white puffer jacket and a crucifix.

The picture instantly went viral, portraying the leader of the church donning the jacket and making his way with absolute style.

Retweets and reshares of the image expressed how absolutely realistic it looked. ‘It’s crazy how realistic this looks’ said one. ‘Wtf? I actually thought this was real for so long’ said another.

This is the most AI looking real image so far pic.twitter.com/kzXuOaSSWL

— Daniel (@growing_daniel) March 26, 2023

And while people were losing their minds over how realistic the image looks, AI experts raised a couple of concerns.

Despite noting that some little inconsistencies give away the fact that the image was not real, like the hand holding the bottle, the AI experts highlighted how such glitches will soon be made extinct.

However, the image of Pope Francis rocking such fire drip isn’t the real issue, according to these experts. For them, the problem is generating images of, say, the war in Ukraine or other disinformation.

What do you make of this?

#MaltaDaily

Malta Rangers call out garbage dumping in Naxxar

Mar 27 2023

The Malta Ranger Unit called out 6 individuals who ‘decided to dump their garbage in a nearby shrub’ in Qalet Marku, Naxxar, rather than taking it home with them.

‘Leaving garbage behind is not ok. It defaces the area and also attracts rats which negatively effect wildlife such as nesting birds’ the page wrote.

‘Our Rangers have been monitoring Qalet Marku (Naxxar) and it didn’t take long until the first case could be documented.

The Rangers reported how the accused will be facing a fine of around €150-300 as per the law against abandonment, dumping and disposal of waste in streets and public spaces/areas.

A police report will be filed by the ranger unit and evidence handed over to the Malta police Force.

‘Keep Malta clean please. We will continue to do our part and report (and document) any illegalities under the environmental chapter (cap.549)’.

#MaltaDaily

Exposure to other people’s sweat can reduce anxiety study suggests

Mar 27 2023

Put aside your mindfulness practice because, apparently, getting a whiff of someone else’s sweat can help reduce anxiety in social situations.

People with social anxiety may benefit from relaxing and mindfulness therapy combined with exposure with odours from other’s sweat, a new study suggests.

Lead researcher Elisa Vigna, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, explained that a person’s state of mind caused the production of chemo-signals in sweat which communicate an emotional state. This can, reportedly, produce corresponding responses in other people.

She went on to state that the studies suggest combining these chemo-signals with mindfulness therapy seem to produce better results in treating social anxiety than what can be achieved with mindfulness on its own.

The study was presented at the European congress of psychiatry in Paris and involved collecting sweat from volunteers and exposing patients treated for social anxiety to chemo-signals.

The samples were collected from people who were watching clips from films which elicited particular emotional states. 48 women, all of whom suffered from social anxiety, were divided into three groups of 16. The study found that the group exposed to the odour samples responded better to a therapy.

This study still requires further research to confirm the findings, but one thing’s for sure: we’re not sure we want to be part of the test groups for this one…

#MaltaDaily