Vishing. You heard it here first. Well, second, if you read Channel News Asia.

Can people tell a real voice from an AI-generated one? We put it to the test
Channel News Asia

AI-related fraud attempts surged by nearly 200 per cent in 2024, according to a cybersecurity firm. CNA takes a closer look at deepfake voice phishing, an increasingly common method used by scammers.

“Hi, how have you been? So I heard about this restaurant that just recently opened up. Want to go check it out the next time we meet?” These were the innocuous sentences used in a simple experiment to find out if people in my social circle could distinguish my real voice from an AI-cloned version.

The result was some confusion – but more importantly, the ease with which the imitation was generated suggests that more attention should be paid to the phenomenon of deepfake voice phishing, or vishing.

♪ “When you vish a porno star . . .” ♪

Millions of dollars have been lost to scammers using cheap yet increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to impersonate the voices of real people.

… AI-related fraud attempts surged by 194 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, with deepfake vishing emerging as one of the most commonly used methods, said the company’s senior fraud analyst for the region Yuan Huang.

“Vanity, V.D., Vishing.”

— Bilious Caesar

Phil*os*co*py

The employment of some device, such as a video camera, mirror, or mug shot, to examine the choices you’ve made in life.

(First recorded use: Popeye on shore leave.)

Any ideas?

Here are some craptastic ones:

What To Do If You See A Mountain Lion While Hiking in the Bay Area
KQED | Aug 14 2025 | Sarah Wright

…“I felt really small,” said McDonald, a biologist and researcher who’s now the founder and president of the Bay Area Puma Project, a local wild cat research and conservation organization that’s part of the Felidae Conservation Fund. “I disrupted his opportunity to get a meal.”…

That’s “survival,” lib.

…And while she had fears, “he was not a threat,” she said. ..

And that’s anti-survival.

… “It’s really important to keep your pets inside.”…That goes for outdoor cats and unsupervised dogs in yards as well as livestock …“

A herd of cows?

I notice she didn’t add the logical extension: “yourself.”

And here’s my absolute favorite part:

“If you have a backpack, you can put that over your head to make yourself seem a bit bigger,” he said.

At least you won’t see the mountain lion anymore, with your head in the backpack.

If the mountain lion is advancing toward you, you can even throw rocks or sticks at it, he said.

Experts — is there anything they haven’t thought through?