Latest news with #KateThompson
Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
AI ‘book thieves' copy Holocaust survivor's memoir
An author who helped a Holocaust survivor write their memoir has lambasted 'book thieves' who used artificial intelligence to 'cream profit off the hard work of a 95-year-old who escaped the gas chambers'. Kate Thompson, who co-wrote the bestselling A Mother's Promise: My True Story of Surviving Auschwitz and the Horrors of the Holocaust with Renee Salt, said the first AI-generated copy appeared on Amazon just days after the memoir's February release. Thompson said the copy had been produced 'at a fraction of the cost, financially, physically, mentally and emotionally' compared with the original, which was the 'culmination of 18 months of exhaustive research and multiple drafts'. While that first AI copy was removed from Amazon, another book, written by the apparently prolific Penny Pincher,
CBC
07-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Olympic Plaza redesign includes skating rink and 12-metre-tall gold fountain
The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) has released long-awaited design plans for the Olympic Plaza Transformation project. Among the features included in the plans are a winter skating rink, a 12-metre-tall fountain the colour of an Olympic gold medal and an indoor pavilion with food and drink service. The design, inspired by the "sunflake" iconography of the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, also includes a flexible outdoor gathering space that can accommodate up to 5,000 people. "You want to take something that works and build on it. And I think that's what the team's done here," said CMLC president and CEO Kate Thompson. "It was important to integrate the pieces of the [last] plaza that worked and also build off making it more flexible, more adaptable for pieces in the future, for different uses that maybe we don't even know about yet." Revamping the downtown plaza is expected to cost $70 million, with funding coming from the province, the City of Calgary and philanthropist Dave Werklund and family. Public engagement helped shape the design, according to the CMLC, with a skating rink and green space being two of the most requested features. The reimagined plaza will "seamlessly" connect with a brand new performing arts building that will go up as part the $660 million Arts Commons Transformation project. Alex Sarian, president and CEO of Arts Commons, said the new Olympic Plaza will provide better opportunities for event organizers, who made use of the old plaza space in spite of its design, not because of it. "We'll be able to have giant events without having to shut down, you know, lanes and lanes to bring in additional resources," said Sarian. "It's exciting because of the flexibility it will allow the community for decades to come." Ground broke in December on the $270-million first phase of the Arts Commons Transformation. Once complete, a new building, adjacent to Olympic Plaza and across Eighth Avenue S.E. from the current Arts Commons building, will house a new 1,000-seat theatre as well as a 200-seat theatre. It will be a three-level, 162,000-square-foot structure that features a curved exterior, inspired by Alberta's landscapes, according to the CMLC. Demolition of Olympic Plaza began in January as part of Phase 1 of the project. The current Arts Commons building, built in 1985, will be modernized in Phase 2. Both the Olympic Plaza and Arts Commons transformations are key to revitalizing downtown Calgary, according to Coun. Terry Wong, representative for Ward 7. "When you take a look at the centrepiece of what the Olympic Plaza Transformation is all about, it is a place where people can flourish," he said. "People can see the vibrancy, the viability of being able to raise a family as well as run a multi-national corporation here." In a nod to the space's Olympic roots, the design team has included one of Calgary's '88 Olympic cauldrons in the plans. As well, part of the arch that bears the Latin motto of the Olympics — "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stronger) — will be reincorporated in the new plaza. The International Olympic Committee was consulted during the design process, according to the CMLC, and has endorsed the new plans as aligned with its expectations for the celebration of Olympic legacy. Construction work on the new Olympic Plaza is set to start in 2027 and wrap up the following year.
