Latest news with #JohnWarren
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
King Charles teams up with Willie Mullins for Leopardstown runner
King Charles and the Queen are teaming up with the king of horse racing as Willie Mullins will saddle his first runner for His Majesty this week. Reaching High has been moved to Mullins' County Carlow stables and runs in a lady riders handicap at Leopardstown on Friday. The four-year-old son of Queen Elizabeth II's Gold Cup winner Estimate will be ridden by Jody Townend, sister of Mullins's stable jockey Paul, who rode her first Cheltenham Festival winner in March. Mullins, the two-time British and 18-times Irish champion trainer, was invited to Windsor Castle for lunch and joined the Royal Procession at Royal Ascot last year. While the royal racing manager, John Warren, described it 'a bit of fun' the serious purpose behind Friday evening's race is find out if the gelding has the potential to go to Royal Ascot, scene of his dam's greatest victory, in June for a long distance handicap before embarking on a jumping career. Reaching High did not break any records in any of his eight runs for Sir Michael Stoute who retired at the end of last year winning once, at Wolverhampton, from eight starts. 'I think the King and Queen are looking forward to having a horse run in Ireland for the first time and this horse might just be a nice prospect that could develop into a National Hunt horse,' Warren told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast. 'He's out of Estimate, a Gold Cup winner, so stamina might be his game. He was trained very well by Sir Michael Stoute last year and when Sir Michael packed up we thought it would be worthwhile looking at who could do a dual-purpose job for him and the Queen. 'The Queen met William on a number of occasions at Cheltenham and thought he was charming and wonderful and keeps having more and more winners the whole time, so the King and Queen were keen to send him to be trained in Ireland.' Meanwhile, Mullins's flat counterpart, Aidan O'Brien, took the latest step to total annexation of all the major Derby/Oaks trials since the Guineas when Whirl, a filly not even entered for Epsom, took apart the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes by five and a half lengths at York. Part-owner Michael Tabor said he thought she was a mile-and-a-quarter filly, and that the Prix de Diane might be more her cup of tea than the Oaks over an extra quarter of a mile. Ryan Moore, however, was very complimentary and hinted she could yet be in the mix for Epsom for which Coolmore would have to pay a £30,000 supplementary entry. 'She was very comfortable stepping up to that trip and was impressive,' he said. 'She is very straight forward and wasn't doing a whole lot in front. She's very professional. By Wootton Bassett she could probably do most things,' Moore said. On Thursday, O'Brien can complete a unique trials set by winning the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes with The Lion In Winter, the over-winter Derby favourite and the colt touted as Ballydoyle's best Derby hope. Tabor said he would not be backing him on Thursday because he has been a bit behind in his work although he is going well at home now. That, he added, would not stop him backing him in the Derby nearer the time.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Are ChatGPT-written children's books an easy side hustle?
(NewsNation) — Social media users claim they've made thousands on self-publishing platforms by writing and illustrating children's books using ChatGPT and AI images. The books are mostly for sale in a digital ebook format. Ebook sales are expected to grow to more than $15 billion by 2027, making up 17% of global book sales. But this literary shortcut may not be a sure-shot way to big rewards. Is meme coin crypto the key to get rich quick or another scam? Children's books are 'an effortless way to use AI to make over $10,000 a month,' one content creator said, gaining more than 36,000 likes on TikTok. The creator said, 'AI will do the writing for us.' Another influencer claimed profits of $500 a day from children's books that only required a few prompts to ChatGPT. Influencers say all you have to do is come up with an idea, give ChatGPT prompts to write the book, use an AI picture tool like Midjourney to illustrate the book and then post to a host website like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing or Etsy. The plan is billed as zero or low cost because ChatGPT does all the work. Creating content like children's books using ChatGPT is pretty straightforward, but making money off of it is an entirely different beast, John Warren, Program Director of publishing at George Washington University, said. The book will still need to be marketed and stand out so people actually buy it, and with so much competition that won't be easy, he said. When something is easy to produce, a lot of users will enter the market, increasing competition and decreasing prices, Andrey Simonov, a professor at Columbia University's Business School, said. Making fast money on vending machines: Is it that easy? 'I just don't believe it,' Ian Lamont, founder of i30 Media Corporation and Lean Media consulting, told NewsNation. 'If you were making that much money, you don't want to tell other people how to do it, because then there'll be more competition for your own for your own books.' 'The reality is, it's very difficult to make money on Amazon or any other platform because even though the barriers to entry are low, quality will eventually matter,' he also said. Children's books seem to be easier to generate for ChatGPT than other types of fiction, Lamont said. 'I don't think we're seeing many fiction books yet because ChatGPT is just not capable of writing good fiction, with the exception of maybe writing some very simple children's stories,' he said. For some of the influencers advertising this plan, the real business appears to be teaching others how to sell ebooks and other digital products with their own how-to guide, experts say. These guides may come at minimal cost or even as a free download, but once you give up your email address, you will then be 'relentlessly spammed' to sign up for a master class or a special creators group, which can cost hundreds or even up to $1,500 per month to join, Lamont said. There is a rapidly growing industry of people teaching others how to make money using AI content. 'If I am a creator who put this video online, you could ask, why would I tell everyone? Why wouldn't I keep making money?' Simonov said. 'And of course, they are doing it because what they want is for this to go viral.' If these videos become popular and attract a lot of attention, more people will watch them and they will gain revenue, subscribers and followers, he said. One content creator who tests out passive income pitches on social media said he did not earn a single penny six months after posting a children's book. 'What they leave out when it comes to this side hustle is that you have to pay to promote that book,' the creator said in his videos, adding that websites have thousands of books for buyers to choose from. 'You're not just going to get that book posted and then show up first on the search results when someone searches for a kids' book. You're going to really need to play that SEO game or actually pay for advertising.' 'That doesn't mean it's an impossible side hustle. You just need to know the work that it's going to take to put in.' ChatGPT can help you save money on your bills The ecosphere of AI-generated digital products is still the 'wild west' Warren said. Laws still need to catch up as they had to with other fast-moving technology, he said, adding that part of the problem is the inability to know for sure which sources ChatGPT extracted from. Lamont said it's largely an 'honor system' and can easily be circumvented. Amazon has a policy requiring creators to flag AI-generated content. In a statement to NewsNation, Amazon spokesperson Tim Gillman said the company is 'constantly evaluating developments that impact that experience, which includes the rapid evolution and expansion of generative AI tools.' Gillman said the company has 'content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale' and 'proactive and reactive methods that help us detect content that violates our guidelines, whether AI-generated or not. We continue to enhance our protections against non-compliant content, and our process and guidelines will keep evolving as we see changes in AI-driven publishing.' The company said its Kindle Direct Publishing platform has lowered volume limits on new submissions from publishers and has rolled out Identity Verification for authors and publishers who now may be prompted to verify their identity using their government-issued identification. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What would a Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area look like?
The Great Dismal Swamp is home to one of Virginia's highest concentrations of black bears, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (Photo courtesy of Rob Wood and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) The National Park Service is asking members of the public to share their thoughts about a potential National Heritage Area designation in the region of the Great Dismal Swamp, a massive swath of ancient, forested wetlands stretching from Southeastern Virginia to the uppermost parts of North Carolina. National Heritage Areas are 'lived-in landscapes' that are 'representative of the national experience through the physical features that remain and the traditions that have evolved in them,' as defined by the Park Service. The Great Dismal Swamp is an environmental and cultural treasure, home to dozens of species of animals and, at one time, groups of Native Americans and formerly enslaved people who used it as a pathway to freedom. The important details of where the conceptual boundary of the Great Dismal Swamp's National Heritage Area would lie and who would manage any conservation, recreation and education opportunities remain unanswered questions at the moment. Sometime in 2026, the Park Service plans to submit a feasibility study to Congress that will answer those questions. Congress will have the final say on whether the region is suited for the federal designation. There are currently 62 designated National Heritage Areas in 36 states and territories. The unique federal designation does not result in any land transfers, local zoning changes or easements. The entire state of Tennessee is a designated National Heritage Area, and the rights of landowners are not affected by the designation. 'A lot of people fear government overreach…' said John Warren, Communications Specialist at the National Park Service Northeast Region. 'There's no such federal footprint in a National Heritage Area. It is entirely something that the local community takes on and runs itself.' Any federal funding for the proposed National Heritage Area would come by way of congressional appropriation. 'A lot of those National Heritage Areas may receive up to $1 million annually, but others get a lot less,' said Warren. National Heritage Areas must receive matching funds from non-federal sources as well. The role of the National Park Service is to be a partner and advisor to the actual manager of the Heritage Area, called the 'local coordinating entity,' an organization within the community chosen to interpret the history and traditions of the area and manage the conservation, recreation and education goals laid out by the project. During virtual meetings held last week, members of the public shared their ideas on the Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area's potential location, its coordinating entity, and the natural, cultural and historic resources the region has to offer. The public was also asked if opportunities exist for improving the quality of those resources through conservation, recreation and education. Comments are encouraged to be submitted in writing online, by mail or over the phone until May 19. The public comments are not meant to be a vote, said Warren, but 'a way to collect information.' 'The study has 10 criteria, and the answer to all of these has got to be 'yes' for us to be able to give a favorable conclusion that, yes, this qualifies as a National Heritage Area,' said Warren. 'So it's a high bar.' Warren said that anecdotally, over the last ten years only about half of the National Heritage Areas that were applied for ended up receiving the designation from Congress. As part of the study, the National Park Service staff has also spoken with potential state and local partners as well as possible coordinating entities. Chesapeake City Council has voiced interest in assuming the managing role, said Julie Bell, cultural resource project manager for the Park Service. Nonprofits, universities, and state and local governments are some examples of coordinating entities that were chosen to manage other Heritage Areas around the nation. Any entity outside of the federal government is allowed to assume the role, including Indigenous tribes, said Bell. The Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area will involve coordination across state lines since the Virginia-North Carolina border slices directly through the swamp. In 2003, the Northern Neck National Heritage Area was established along with six others around the nation. The designation was Virginia's third National Heritage Area to date. Two other possible National Heritage Areas have completed their feasibility studies and are currently awaiting a decision from Congress: the Finger Lakes Region in New York and the Kentucky Wildlands. The National Park Service is developing themes that are present in the Great Dismal Swamp region to tell a nationally distinctive heritage story. One theme is 'a place of refuge' and another is 'a field of conflict.' Based on artifacts found in the Great Dismal Swamp dating back over 5,000 years, the Nansemond, Meherrin, Yeopim and Lumbee people were likely stewards of the swamp long before European colonists arrived, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After colonization, the role of the swamp for local communities changed. About 50,000 self-emancipated African Americans, called maroons, along with free Blacks, Indigenous people and Europeans lived in the swamp in search of refuge. Some used it as a pause point on their journeys north, making the swamp an official water-based rest stop on the Underground Railroad, but others settled permanent communities there up until the end of the Civil War. Today, the Great Dismal Swamp is protected by a 113,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. What is now a vast, uninhabited landscape is actually just a remnant of its former self. The once enormous swamp covered over 1 million acres, roughly the size of Delaware, but was drained over the years, first by a young George Washington in 1763. Washington and other investors initially aimed to create land in the swamp that could be sold for profit, then to dig a canal to transport goods across the swamp. Enslaved people were forced to provide the labor for these early economic ventures. One of the most successful business opportunities in the swamp turned out to be logging. The now globally rare Atlantic white cedar was in high demand, and gaining access to the trees required digging ditches to drain the swamp. By the 1950s, the last of the virgin timber in the Great Dismal Swamp was gone, according to a National Park Service story map. On George Washington's birthday in 1973, about 50,000 acres of swamp land was donated to the Nature Conservancy and then handed over to the Fish & Wildlife Service, thus creating the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. 'We have discovered that swamps actually play a vital role in our environment and that they are necessary,' said Warren. 'You know, they're not just places that we want to avoid because they have a lot of mosquitos or something like that. They're places that are useful to the environment.' The Fish and Wildlife Service says the swamp serves as a permanent and migratory home for roughly 50 species of mammals, 200 types of birds and 100 species of butterflies. The diverse ecosystem ranges from bald cypress to red maple and Virginia's last historic refuge of native Atlantic white cedar. In addition to the habitat the swamp provides to wildlife, it also prevents floods and improves water quality in nearby communities with a combined population of nearly 1 million people, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. A 2017 project to re-moisten the peat soils of the swamp served to benefit the surrounding population, including in Suffolk, by restoring a more natural water regime in the area. The Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners installed adjustable dams in key places to regulate the amount of water leaving the swamp, improving the environment's ability to provide its once inherent benefits. The re-moistened peat is now able to absorb stormwater more efficiently, acting like a sponge to reduce flooding during severe weather such as the storms and hurricanes that are common in the region. Healthy peat also stores more carbon, a valuable tool in combating global climate change. 'This is a region that has already changed a lot,' said Warren. Creating a National Heritage Area 'may have some influence on that, or it may not.' Those decisions would be left to the local community and the chosen coordinating entity. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
