Deep fakes - would you be able to spot one?
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. This week, I went down the rabbit hole of AI and deep fakes. I have to say I was shocked at how, at a glance, deep fakes generated by artificial intelligence can actually be. And very concerned. If you've seen for instance Mark Zuckerberg saying he had total control of billio...
Jan 19, 2024
Fast food when it was a luxury
I'm Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. There may be listeners out there who don't remember or didn't have this experience, but I so distinctly recall the secret, almost forbidden pleasure, of rolling up to the A&W Drive-in diner as a little kid with my family and the waitresses would come out to the car and take you...
Jan 15, 2024
the will of the people
The word "democracy" comes from the Greek words "demos", meaning people, and "kratos", meaning power. So, democracy can be thought of as "power of the people", a way of governing that depends on the will of the people. We elect representatives to make decisions on our behalf. ...
Jan 12, 2024
cruise ships
What is an "icon"? The best definition I can find is that an icon is a person or thing widely admired for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere. The world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean's "Icon of the Seas" will be making its inaugural voyage later this month. This...
Jan 10, 2024
Immigration
Canada's population was estimated to be just over 40,500,000 on October 1. That's an increase of more than 430,600 since Canada Day July 1st. This country's total population growth in the first 9 months of 2023 exceeded the total for any other full year period since Confederation in 1867. Our population grew by more ...
Jan 08, 2024
middle class in Canada
The "middle class". Political parties covet it because most of us believe we are part of it. In a recent nationwide survey about the future of Canada's middle class fewer than a third of us are optimistic about its future. In 2020 just over half of Canadians felt optimistic, so there's been a big drop. In ...
Jan 05, 2024
predictions for the new year
And away we go into 2024. Fasten your seat belts and hold on because I think it's going to be another interesting one and the old crystal ball is cloudy so it's hard to make any solid predictions about what's going to happen in the hot spots around the world, and I mean hot in terms of both conflict and climate change...
Jan 03, 2024
year end
As another year comes to an end and I'm another year older I like to ponder some of the things I have learned about life. For example, getting older isn't so bad when you consider the alternative. There are things money can't buy: manners, morals, character, respect, common sense, trust, patience, class, integrity, ...
Dec 29, 2023
Always trust your gut instincts
As another year comes to an end and I'm another year older I like to ponder some of the things I have learned about life. For example, getting older isn't so bad when you consider the alternative. There are things money can't buy: manners, morals, character, respect, common sense, trust, patience, class, integrity, ...
Dec 29, 2023
2024?
What will 2024 be like? That's a broad question to ponder. As usual there'll be bad news and good news (we hope). Some of the bad news is we don't know when people will stop killing each other in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The human race never seems to learn from its historical mistakes. Russia's Vladimir...
Dec 27, 2023