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Powered by AI, company aims to make selling easier for retailers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

When Danielle Schmelkin went shopping online for something special to wear to her niece’s wedding in 2021, she was looking for “a very specific type of dress based on trends I had seen recently.”To her delight, Bloomingdales.com came through like a personal shopper. The menu filter for “formal dresses” prompted her to choose from 15 criteria like dress length, color, neckline, sleeve length and embellishments. Moments later, she was sorting through 200 desirable options. “It was quick and really focused,” she said. “I had no problem going from one page to the next, because there were meaningful results for me.” She found “the perfect dress,” and bought it.Months later, Schmelkin — in her role as the chief information officer at J. Crew Group — was introduced to Lily AI, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that began working with fashion retailers in 2019. Bloomingdale’s, she learned, was already a client. Intrigued, Schmelkin did a test run on its product catalog from ...

Smartphone photos are getting faker. Uh-oh?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

Smartphone cameras became extremely powerful over the last five years. Their leap in quality was largely driven by advancements in computational photography, a technology that uses algorithms, artificial intelligence and sensors to produce sharp, lifelike pictures. Now we all can shoot stunning images that rival the work of professionals.So what’s next? I hate to say it: faker photos.Google, which has long been an industry leader in smartphone photography, will on Thursday start shipping the Pixel 8, a $700 handset with a suite of AI-powered photo-editing tools. The phone software does much more than adjust the sharpness and brightness of a photo — it uses AI to generate imagery or to remove elements to give you exactly the photo you want.Imagine, for instance, a photo in which a person’s shoulder is cut off. With Google’s software, you can now tap the Magic Editor button and scoot that person over in the frame. From there, the software will use AI to produce the rest of that ...

NFL Picks: San Francisco’s stampede continues and a surprisingly big NFC tilt in Tampa

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

Around the AFCSuper Joe. It’s been a slow start for Joe Burrow as he works his way through a calf injury, but he finally hit his stride Sunday in throwing for 317 yards and three touchdowns against Arizona. If he gets toward fully healthy, it’ll be just in time. The Bengals’ next three are against Seattle, San Francisco and Buffalo.London Lamar. The fans across the pond get an up-close-and-personal look at Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson on Sunday morning as the Ravens take on Tennessee. Jackson’s off to another stellar start, though drops crippled Baltimore’s chances last week against Pittsburgh. All the same, the NFL’s putting one of its foremost talents on display once again in London.Belichick bowl. Bill Belichick against Josh McDaniels is by far the spiciest part of an AFC matchup between a pair of not-great teams in New England and Las Vegas. McDaniels and company have tried to make the Patriots Way take root in the desert and it’s been tough sledding. But maybe not ...

Colorado libraries face increasing requests to remove or limit access to books and programming

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

Colorado’s public libraries face a rising number of requests to ban or restrict access to books, programs or displays, mirroring trends across the country as conservative movements target books and programming with LGBTQ and race-related themes.So far, though, these attempts to censor library books in Colorado appear to be largely unsuccessful amid backlash by outspoken community membersLibraries across the nation have seen efforts by a vocal, growing political movement seeking to restrict access to books on gay communities, race, history, sexuality and reproductive health, according to a new report from the American Library Association. They use social media to disseminate lists of books they disapprove of so followers can challenge them at their local public and school libraries, the report said.Preliminary 2023 data from the American Library Association shows 136 titles were challenged in eight separate attempts to restrict access to books in Colorado libraries between Janu...

Denver’s 16th Street Mall work won’t be done until 2025 as businesses hang on

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

In an alternate reality, Denver’s overhaul of the 16th Street Mall would be more than halfway done by now. Retailers and restauranteurs would only have until the end of 2024 to endure dusty, noisy, at times odorous construction work before enjoying the strip’s long-planned update.As it stands, work on some segments of downtown Denver’s 1.2-mile-long pedestrian mall and commercial nerve center is now expected to carry over into the fall of 2025. The updated schedule was released in July, city officials said.A tangle of underground utilities, including an active 1880s-built, brick-lined sewer buried under the mall’s 13 blocks of trademark pavers, has been the source of the delays.Denver officials expected work to be tricky. When the project was formally kicking off last spring, officials talked about a water line estimated to be 125 years old under the mall. But with spotty mapping and documentation of all the utilities added downtown over the decades, things ...

'Ring of fire' solar eclipse will cut across the Americas, stretching from Oregon to Brazil

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun cuts across the Americas on Saturday, stretching from Oregon to Brazil, and huge crowds were on the move before dawn in cities, rural areas and national parks to try to catch a glimpse of it.For the small towns and cities along its narrow path, there was a mix of excitement, worries about the weather and concerns they'd be overwhelmed by visitors flocking to see the celestial event, also called an annular solar eclipse. Clouds and fog threatened to obscure the view of the eclipse in some western states, including California and Oregon.Unlike a total solar eclipse, the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun during a ring of fire eclipse. When the moon lines up between Earth and the sun, it leaves a bright, blazing border.Saturday’s path: Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas in the U.S., with a sliver of California, Arizona and Colorado. Next: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama...

‘Home is home’: Israelis put lives in the Bay Area on pause after Hamas attacks in Israel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

For weeks this fall, Avi Markson basked in the warmth and bonhomie of his family back in Israel — a perfect first vacation, he said, from the new San Jose-based home remodeling job that he scored earlier this year.Then came the air raid sirens, the decision to cancel his flight back to the Bay Area, and the message to his San Jose employer that he wouldn’t be returning to work anytime soon.“There was no thought about it,” Markson said. “If my brothers are fighting, I’m going to be fighting.”Across the Bay Area, numerous Israelis put their lives in California on hold this week to either stay put in their homeland or jet halfway across the world to aid in Israel’s response to the deadliest attack on its soil in decades. Some were active reservists in the nation’s armed forces who ranked among the 360,000 Israelis called to action as part of the country’s largest military mobilization in decades. Others, such as Markson, opted to either volunteer in the nation’s...

49ers at Browns: Five keys to potential shutout win in Cleveland

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

CLEVELAND – The 49ers’ quest for six wins, on a potential path to a sixth Lombardi Trophy, comes Sunday in a rare visit to the Browns’ lakefront home.This won’t offer the friendly comforts of Levi’s Stadium, site of the 49ers’ past three wins, the biggest of which came Sunday night in 42-10 fashion over the Dallas Cowboys.But the injury-plagued Browns (2-2) could be gracious and overmatched hosts, so they hope the 49ers (5-0) are poised for a letdown after their lopsided win over their storied rival.“They’re riding their high horse right now,” Browns safety Grant Delpit told Cleveland.com, “so that’s probably the best time to get them.”The 49ers are 10-point favorites, but their egos are checked. Afforded a “Victory Monday” off, the 49ers locker room vibe wasn’t abnormal once practices resumed Wednesday, and, in fact, it was a subdued setting after Thursday’s practice. “I feel like we still have left stuff out there, where we can be our best and still reach our full pote...

Bedbug panic is spreading across Europe. Here’s what travelers need to know

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

By Blane Bachelor | CNNDermatologist Zeina Nehme says her clinic usually sees a number of cases every summer in which patients have been bitten by bedbugs while traveling. Yet surprisingly enough, she says none materialized this year.However, like anyone else not living under a rock, Nehme has seen the flurry of headlines and social media accounts documenting the bedbug paranoia in Paris, which erupted during Fashion Week and has since spread to other cities including London.So, during her recent trip to the City of Light, Nehme decided to embark on an experiment of sorts: to see one of the troublesome critters firsthand and use it as fodder for a social media video.But Nehme, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, says she found nary a pesky parasite during her long weekend: not on the metro, in restaurants, nor the 17th arrondissement apartment where she stayed with a friend.RELATED: Here’s how to leave bedbugs behind when you travel home: expert“Since I am a dermatologist and I p...

Editorial: San Jose cops’ troubling use of force with mentally ill

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:14 GMT

Thompson “Tommy” Nguyen was undergoing a psychotic break holding an ax and a metal pipe as he walked the grounds of a San Jose power plant. He never raised his arms or overtly menaced police with the weapons. But as one officer yelled “Tase him,” another officer instead shot him dead.One of the greatest challenges Bay Area police face centers around the increasing number of interactions with the mentally impaired. For police who are trained extensively on how to establish authority and compel compliant behavior, dealing with people in mental crises often requires tapping a different skill set to avoid tragic consequences.Unfortunately, San Jose police continue to fall back on their instinct to use force rather than looking for ways to deescalate confrontations.In 2017, San Jose became the first big-city police department in the country to mandate crisis-intervention training for its officers. The training was a condition of the city’s legal settlement with the family of a 19-year-ol...