Coronavirus Remains a Global Emergency

Three years to the day after the World Health Organization sounded the highest level of global alert over Covid-19, they maintained on Monday that the pandemic remains a global emergency.

 

In fact, a new Omicron variant CH.1.1, or "Orthrus" as it is known as, and a descendant of BA.2.75, which emerged in Southeast Asia last fall, has now been detected in over 60 countries. 

 

Whatever the case is, nobody cares. And Life goes on. 

 

YMCA Kuala Lumpur is again our venue for World Speech Day Kuala Lumpur 2023 – but we had to move it a day earlier. March 14, instead of March 15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#unexpectedvoices #worldspeechday

A 12-Year-Old's Roach Obsession

Meet Shelby Counterman (right) – she’s a 12-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma in the US and she collects cockroaches. 

 

She started with only five and now, her collection is made up of about 5,000 roaches, and which includes 17 different species. She likes them close and so, she keeps them in tanks in her bedroom.

 

She confesses her favorite is the Simandoa cave roach (Scientific name: Simandoa conserfariam), a species of cockroach that is believed to be extinct in the wild. However, it is kept as a pet by insect hobbyists and is therefore not considered completely extinct.

 

In the video, two species are featured – the Dubia roach (Scientific name: Blaptica dubia), a tropical species of cockroach originally native to South and Central America and the Madagascar hissing cockroach (Scientific name: Gromphadorhina portentosa), a wingless cockroach from Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shelby knows that most people don’t understand her passion. “When someone says they’re gross, I explain that there are 4,500 roach species in the world and only a handful of them are bad for humans”, she says. “I want people to understand that roaches actually help us and play an important role in our ecosystem. They are decomposers. They eat garbage and other waste. They have a job to do”. 

 

FYI, just 30 cockroach species are considered pests.

Subtract Jobs Then, Add Jobs Now

Singapore's SEA Group e-commerce entity Shopee had at least three rounds of job cuts, their most recent layoffs being November 14, 2022. 

 

But Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has declared that Shopee are now committed to expanding their investments in Malaysia. 

 

It seems that SEA’s proposed plans will involve the setting up of cloud services, data hosting and processing, as well as a new logistics e-commerce warehouse, thereby creating more than 2,000 jobs in the process (New Straits Times, January 29, 2023). 

 

Subtract jobs then, add jobs now?! 😒

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In another match that I was following yesterday, Celtic are still perched at the top of the Scottish Premiership as they registered a 2-0 win over Dundee United. 

 

The latter proved to be more resilient and able to hold out until Jota headed home an Aaron Mooy cross in the fifty-first minute. Five minutes later, Mooy slotted home a penalty after Jota's flick struck an opposition player's hand. 

 

Celtic host Livingston next on Wednesday.

Shania Twain Goes Naked

Canadian country singer Shania Twain has opened up about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather from the age of 10 – and according to her, it inspired her to show herself covered in mud, while naked for her latest album artwork: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on the normal cover of “Queen Of Me”, which is out this week, she put on a leggy display while sitting bra-less on horseback in a blazer that falls open to expose her ample cleavage: 

 

She says the decision to go nude was about “self-empowerment and taking charge of your fears”! 

 

Sorry lah, I just don't get it.

 

Liverpool’s defense of the FA Cup came to a crashing halt in the fourth round as Brighton & Hove Albion bested them 2-1 yesterday. 

 

The Reds looked to be producing an improved display as they went a goal ahead through Harvey Elliott in the thirtieth minute – but they were undone by two goals from the Seagulls (39, 90+2). If the first goal was bad luck, the second was sloppiness. 

 

To be honest, the whole club is an absolute shambles and Jürgen Klopp is certainly not blameless. For reasons known only to himself, he made substitutions in the second half and brought in the seniors – and all they did was conspire to make the team performance worse. 

 

James Milner and Jordan Henderson brought little energy to proceedings, also not offering enough quality – no sub created a single chance – while Darwin Nunez‘s use of the ball left a lot to be desired. And then there was Fabinho‘s latest inept cameo, with the Brazilian’s first touch a loose one that put Liverpool in trouble, before a dreadful tackle on a Brighton player deserved a red card. 

 

Everyone has a sell-by date.

A Fatal Beating in Memphis

Police brutality in the US has made headlines all over the world. Again. This time, black cops killed an unarmed black man in Memphis, Tennessee. 

 

Memphis police kicked and baton-charged 29-year-old Tyre Nichols and used Taser on him during a traffic stop on January 07, as confirmed by video footage from police body-worn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole released on Friday. 

 

Nichols (right) was beaten to a bloody pulp. 

 

He was sent to the hospital in critical condition but he succumbed to his injuries and died three days later. 

 

Five officers – Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean – were dismissed from their posts and on Thursday, they were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nichols’s fatal beating is just the latest high-profile example of police brutality – it has recalled the 2020 killing of George Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

 

The video of the altercation that left Nichols dead also has drawn comparisons to the Rodney King beating video, which triggered days of riots in Los Angeles, California, that left dozens dead. 

 

Needless to say, at the time of this post, protests have erupted across the country.

Post Sues OK Go For Right to Use OK Go

OK Go, an American indie rock band established in 1998, are being sued by cereal company Post Foods over the right to continue using the band’s name for a range of instant cereal cups.

 

In case you are not familiar with this band, here’s one of their music videos – a personal favorite of mine – called “The Writing’s On the Wall”:

 

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.  

 

According to the US company’s filing in Minnesota federal court via Billboard, the band had been threatening to sue for months and Post Foods would be “unfairly forced to continue investing in (their) new OK GO! brand while under the constant threat of unfounded future litigation by defendants”. 

 

The company are now seeking a declaratory judgement ruling that they haven’t done anything wrong, citing their trademark application for OK Go! that was allegedly approved in 2022. 

 

According to Post Foods, the United States Patent and Trademark Office did not find the cereal line’s name would cause confusion with the name of the band, OK Go. 

 

In a statement to Billboard, OK Go said they were caught off guard by the lawsuit. 

 

“A big corporation chose to steal the name of our band to market disposable plastic cups of sugar to children. That was an unwelcome surprise, to say the least. But then they sue US about it? Presumably, the idea is that they can just bully us out of our own name, since they have so much more money to spend on lawyers? I guess that’s often how it works, but hopefully, we’ll be the exception”.

 

According to the lawsuit, OK Go’s lawyer previously sent a cease-and-desist letter to Post Foods back in September 2022, alleging the company’s new brand name would “suggest to consumers” that the band were endorsing the cereal giant’s products.

 

In the letter, the band claimed that their past collaborations with Sony, Mercedes Benz, Google, and more had led consumers to associate the OK Go name with consumer products across different industries. Of particular note was OK Go’s previous collaboration with Post Foods on a series of promotional videos for A Honey Bunches Of Oats in 2011. 

 

Shame on Post Foods!

Roach-naming to Heal Broken Hearts

It is said breakups can be rough, from big arguments to silent sobs into your tub of ice cream, there's no denying your heart and ego can feel a little bit bruised. 

 

Anyone still feeling resentment towards their ex might be dreading Valentine's Day coming up with the heart shaped chocolate and red roses plastering the supermarket shelves. 

 

A zoo in Toronto, Canada, could help heal that wound as they've offered people the chance to name a cockroach after their ex this Valentine's Day. Jilted lovers have pounced on the chance to get this last laugh with the zoo being inundated with requests. 

 

The name-a-roach campaign at Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy gives people a chance to dedicate one of the critters to their former lover for £20. 

 

It's not just exes who can be the target of this as the cockroaches can be named after bosses, old best friends, a neighbor, or any other pest too. 

 

Toronto Zoo's cockroach campaign reads: "Roses are red; violets are blue… Is there someone in your life that’s bugging you? Give them goosebumps by naming a cockroach in their honor this Valentine's Day". 

 

Scorned lovers could name one, or more, of the zoo's cockroaches by filling in a form online "in honor" of the person of their choosing. They will then receive a digital certificate with the roach's name, and even a shareable digital graphic. 

 

Unfortunately for anyone looking for a Valentine's Day pick me up, the zoo has now closed the competition after far too many people wanted to take part.

ChatGPT Cannot List as Co-author

ChatGPT may be a blessing for many but publishers of scientific journals have banned or restricted contributors’ use of the advanced AI-driven chatbot amid concerns that it could pepper academic literature with flawed and even fabricated research. 

 

ChatGPT, a fluent but flaky chatbot developed by OpenAI in California, USA, has impressed or distressed human users by dishing out poems, short stories, essays and even personal advice since its launch in November. But while the chatbot has proved a huge source of fun – its take on how to free a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR, in the style of the King James Bible, is one notable hit (refer to my yesterday's post) – the program can also produce fake scientific abstracts that are convincing enough to fool human reviewers. 

 

ChatGPT’s more legitimate uses in article preparation have already led to it being credited as a co-author on a handful of papers. 

 

The sudden arrival of ChatGPT has prompted a scramble among publishers to respond. On Thursday, Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of the leading US journal Science, announced an updated editorial policy, banning the use of text from ChatGPT and clarifying that the program could not be listed as an author. 

 

“Given the frenzy that has built up around this, it’s a good idea to make it absolutely explicit that we will not permit ChatGPT to be an author or to have its text used in papers”, Thorp said. 

 

Leading scientific journals require authors to sign a form declaring that they are accountable for their contribution to the work. Since ChatGPT cannot do this, it cannot be an author, Thorp maintains. 

 

But even using ChatGPT in the preparation of a paper is problematic, he believes. ChatGPT makes plenty of errors, which could find their way into the literature, he says, and if scientists come to rely on AI programs to prepare literature reviews or summarise their findings, the proper context of the work and the deep scrutiny that results deserve could be lost. “That is the opposite direction of where we need to go”, he said. 

 

On Tuesday, Springer-Nature, which publish nearly 3,000 journals, updated their guidelines to state that ChatGPT cannot be listed as an author. But ChatGPT has not been banned outright. The tool, and others like it, can still be used in the preparation of papers, provided full details are disclosed in the manuscript. 

 

“The specific development that we felt very strongly that we needed to respond to was the fact that pretty much all of a sudden the tool was appearing as a co-author”, said Magdalena Skipper, the editor-in-chief of Nature. 

 

With the right guardrails in place, Skipper believes, ChatGPT and similar AI tools could be beneficial for science, not least in levelling the playing field for non-native English speakers who could use AI programs to make the language in their papers more fluent. 

 

Elsevier, which publish about 2,800 journals, including Cell and the Lancet, have taken a comparable stance to Springer-Nature. Their guidelines allow the use of AI tools “to improve the readability and language of the research article, but not to replace key tasks that should be done by the authors, such as interpreting data or drawing scientific conclusions”, said Elsevier’s Andrew Davis, adding that authors must declare if and how they have used AI tools. 

 

Michael Eisen, the editor-in-chief of eLife, said ChatGPT could not be an author, but he saw its adoption as inevitable. “I think the better question isn’t whether to allow it but how to manage the fact that it is being used”, he said. “The most important thing, for now, at least, is for authors to be very upfront about its use and to describe how it was used, and for us to be clear that in using the tool they are taking responsibility for its output”. 

 

Sandra Wachter, a professor of technology and regulation at the University of Oxford, said: “It’s great to see publishers taking action. ChatGPT allows for corners to be cut and this is especially troubling if the suggested content is not rigorously double-checked but just assumed to be correct. This can lead to misinformation and junk science. I think many other sectors such as education, art and journalism will have to think about similar steps, because they are facing similar challenges”.

God and the Peanut Butter Sandwich

ChatGPT, a dialogue-based AI chatbot that is capable of understanding natural human language and generating impressively detailed human-like written text, is the latest evolution of the GPT – or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer – family of text-generating AIs. Launched by OpenAI on November 30, 2022, it quickly collected one million users in just one week! 

 

It has been trained to generate human-like responses to text input in a conversational context. And it can write emails and essays, poetry, answer questions, or generate lines of code based on a prompt. 

 

This could be used to develop virtual assistants or quickly answer customer queries. Content platform Jasper said about 80,000 clients have used its software to draft ads, emails, blogs and other material. 

 

And a Twitter user, Thomas H Ptacek, had shared the ChatGPT output he got to this prompt, “Write a biblical verse in the style of the King James Bible explaining how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR”: 

 

What a masterpiece! 👏

 

In fact, the chatbot powered by reams of data from the Internet even passed exams at a US law school after writing essays on topics ranging from constitutional law to taxation and torts. 

 

A professor at Minnesota University Law School, Jonathan Choi and his colleagues published an article on January 23 titled “ChatGPT goes to law school” after the AI tool completed tests comprising 95 multiple-choice questions and 12 essay questions. 

 

Exams for the AI tool were the same as those for other law students. 

 

Even though it had passed with an overall C+, ChatGPT’s exam scores were still among the lowest in the class in the majority of courses, particularly when it came to topics involving mathematics, which Choi claimed it “bombed”. The professor said the bot was a mediocre student. 

 

“Overall, ChatGPT wasn’t a great law student acting alone”, he tweeted. “But we expect that collaborating with humans, language models like ChatGPT would be very useful to law students taking exams and to practising lawyers”. 

 

Choi dismissed fears that students could use the AI tool to cheat during exams. He said two of three examiners could spot the Chat bot’s script because of its “perfect grammar”. 

 

“(They) had a hunch and their hunch was right, because ChatGPT had perfect grammar and was somewhat repetitive”, Choi asserted.

A Croatian Wish for Germany

Yesterday's post “Germany Says It Loud and Clear” refers. 

 

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic (right) said on Thursday, the US and Germany might be at war with Russia, but that was news to Croatia – and wished Berlin better luck than in World War 2! 

 

Framing the Ukraine conflict as one between Washington and Moscow, he reminded reporters that he was criticized for merely echoing the words of Kiev’s defense minister, about the current conflict being a “proxy war” between NATO and Russia. 

 

Great news! A real possibility that Russia and Belarus can participate in the Paris Olympics next year after all, despite protests from Ukraine. 

 

Both countries had been unjustly barred from almost all international competitions in Olympic sports following Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. 

 

But the International Olympic Committee indicated Wednesday that they favor officially neutral teams from the two countries at the 2024 Olympics amid fierce objections from Ukrainian President [V]olodymyr [Z]elenskyy to exclude them entirely. 

 

A day later, Russia and Belarus were invited to Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 08, 2023 to compete at the Asian Games, a key Olympic qualifier. 

 

The Olympic Council of Asia issued a statement: "The OCA believe in the unifying power of sport and that all athletes, regardless of their nationality or the passport they hold, should be able to compete in sports competitions". 

 

Thumbs up to OCA because that is what sports should be! Free from toxic politics! 

 

P.S. Malaysia too can learn from this!

Germany Says It Loud and Clear

Germany makes unambiguous its intention to get into the fray in Ukraine.

 

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (left), in her keynote address Tuesday at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, says it loud and clear: “We are fighting a war against Russia…”.

 

Hmm, is she referring to Germany or to Europe? Whatever. To me, that is a sure declaration of war!

 

Like it or not, Russia has to fight Germany again – and defeat it for the second time! 

 

 

Winged Artwork

Fiona Parkinson (left) is a fine art taxidermist working in the UK. And she creates art from butterfly wings. 

Her medium is extremely fragile, and she nimbly carves intricate designs out of the deceased specimens' wings, and then arranges the carvings into displays. Some of her designs are playful, and others fall on the macabre side. 

She’s produced a stunning series of artworks titled Insect Dissectology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A creative way to preserve the beauty of a dead butterfly.

US Wants War With China

The US wants war with China – but with other people doing the fighting! So revealed John Lander, a veteran Australian diplomat on Sunday. 

 

Much like in Ukraine, where it – together with its NATO minions – is warring against Russia – but the Ukrainians are the ones who are both combatants and cannon fodder! 

 

“The United States is NOT preparing to go to war against China: the United States is preparing AUSTRALIA to go to war against China”, Lander reiterated.

 

He believed China has no intention of invading the southern continent. But a different narrative was foremost in people’s minds because the Americans have a tight grip on Australian government and media, he had argued. 

 

Furthermore, he disclosed that Australia is being invaded. Yet there was a hidden irony that people aren’t seeing. 

 

There is a country making a massive push into Australia: that country is the United States, not China. Australia’s citizens are “unaware or uncaring that almost every major Australian company across resources, food, retail, mass media, entertainment, banking and finance sectors, has majority American ownership”, Lander said. 

 

“Australians fret about China buying up the country but American investment is ten times the size”, he added. 

 

Lander is retired and obviously, unafraid to speak openly. Regrettably, comments by him, one of the country’s top China experts, received virtually no coverage from mainstream media. 

 

FYI, John Lander (left) was Australia’s Director of the China Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs on three separate occasions, and personally negotiated Consular relations between Australia and China, having worked as a bridge between the two nations for the best part of 30 years. 

 

Lander said he had become increasingly alarmed at the spreading of the notion that war against China is “inevitable”. 

 

Already, it is increasingly acknowledged that the next target of the US is China. Actually, it already is – now, it is to stoke a war with China!

Woman in Red

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American rapper Doja Cat wowed onlookers on Monday as she arrived at a Schiaparelli (just so you know, it's SKAP-eh-REL-EE) runway show in a dramatic head-to-toe look – British makeup artist Pat McGrath had described the look as “Doja’s Inferno” – adorned with red body paint and 30,000 Swarovski crystals. 

 

The eye-catching all-red outfit, which was custom-designed by the fashion house's creative director Daniel Roseberry, was brought to life by McGrath (right), whose team spent “4 hours and 58 minutes” completing the look. 

 

The singer's grand entrance at the Petit Palais in Paris, France marked a dramatic start to Schiaparelli's Couture Spring-Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 23. Dubbed "Inferno Couture," the label's latest collection was inspired by Dante's "Inferno" and the nine circles of hell, according to Roseberry's show notes. 

 

Doja Cat's fittingly devilish outfit featured a silk bustier, a skirt covered in lacquered wooden beads, and a pair of matching red boots. 

 

And in time for the Lunar New Year too! 😀– red being an auspicious color for the Chinese!

 

The Internet stood divided over the show-stopping moment. While there were social media users who called it an “iconic” fashion moment and lauded the “creative fashion art”, others were of the opinion that it triggered trypophobia (fear of clusters of small holes or bumps). And Doja Cat’s photos in this Schiaparelli ensemble, of course, triggered a meme fest on social media.

Doomsday Clock is 90 Seconds to Midnight

The symbolic Doomsday Clock has moved closer than ever to midnight, declaring humanity perilously close to catastrophe. 

 

The clock, set to 90 seconds to midnight, marks how close our planet is to complete annihilation because of manmade actions. 

 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) said the clock moved, in large part, because of the war in Ukraine. They must have believed that it could very well escalate into a nuclear war!

 

The idea began in 1947 to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear war. The hands of the clock are moved closer to or further away from midnight based on the scientists' reading of existential threats at a particular time. Midnight marks the theoretical point of annihilation. 

 

The decision is made by the BAS science and security board, which includes 13 Nobel Laureates. This year the announcement was made available in Ukrainian and Russian as well as English, due to the war in Ukraine.

 

The board stated that the war has raised profound questions on how nations interact, as well as an apparent downfall in international conduct.

 

The farthest away the clock hands have ever been was right after the end of the Cold War – at 17 minutes from midnight. 

 

Rachel Bronson, CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said though humans created these problems, the board also believes humans can reduce the risks with global engagement.  

 

This has been brought to my attention. I had missed out another mass shooting – and yes, again in California. 

 

An execution-style massacre left six people dead on January 16, 2023. Including a teen mother and her 10-month-old son. According to Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, forensic evidence showed a shooter stood over 16-year-old Alissa Parraz and her son Nycholas and shot both of them in the head. 

 

The other four victims ranged from 19 to 72 years old, including a grandmother who was shot as she slept. The incident happened in Goshen in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, some 170 miles (273.59 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The victims of a shooting in Goshen, California, were displayed during a news conference, Tuesday, January 17, 2023, in Visalia, California. Photo: Ron Holman/The Times-Delta via AP 

 

Authorities said they were searching for two suspects and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrests. 

 

USA: Land of Guns and Violence.

 

 

The Massive Destruction by Superheroes and Villains in Movies and Television

Florida, US-based Stacey Giulianti is both an insurance lawyer and a comic book fan. Who better to review and assess the damage in superhero movies and television shows, such as “Man of Steel”, “The Batman”, “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, “Venom”, “The Boys”, and “Avengers: Infinity War”, than a 30-year veteran in the field?

Another Mass Shooting in California

Yet another mass shooting – again in California, USA! (Read my post yesterday).

 

This time, in Half Moon Bay, a coastal town, approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of San Francisco. 

 

The shooting occurred on Monday at two separate locations, police said. Four victims were found at the Magic Mushroom Farm at 12761 San Mateo Road/Highway 92, while two more people were killed at a trucking company situated at 2125 Cabrillo Highway S./Highway 1. A third victim at the latter location was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and later died. 

 

A suspect is in custody.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the death toll from the Monterey Park shooting, rose to 11 on Monday when one of the wounded taken to LA County-USC Medical Center for treatment died. 

 

Guns and sickos, that's the USA! 

 

Swedish audio streaming and media services provider, Spotify Technology announced on Monday that they plan to trim six percent of their workforce and would take a related charge of up to nearly $50 million, further adding to the massive layoffs in the technology sector in preparation for a possible recession. 

 

Already, in October, Spotify had let go of 38 employees from their podcast studios Gimlet Media and Parcast. 

 

The tech industry is facing a demand downturn after two years of pandemic-powered growth during which companies had hired aggressively. 

 

Still, tech companies are vastly larger than they were three years ago. Spotify had 4,405 employees in 2019, before the pandemic began, according to that year’s annual report. They had about 9,800 full-time employees as of September 30. 

 

Smaller tech players such as UK-based cybersecurity firm Sophos and cryptocurrency players such as Coinbase have also announced job cuts affecting up to 20 percent of their workforce.

Avatar 2 Surpasses $2 Billion in Ticket Sales

After just six weeks of release, James Cameron’s blockbuster sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” has surpassed $2 billion in global ticket sales. 

 

It’s the sixth film in history – and first in pandemic times – to cross the coveted milestone, joining an exclusive club that includes “Avatar”, “Avengers: Endgame”, “Titanic”, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, and “Avengers: Infinity War”. 

 

Just so you know, Cameron is responsible for 3 of the six-highest grossing movies of all time. He’s also the only director with three films to cross $2 billion. 

 

And Zoe Saldaña (left), who plays Neytiri in the “Avatar” series, has now starred in four of the six films to cross $2 billion – she has appeared in both “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avengers: Infinity War”, reprising her “Guardians of the Galaxy” role of Gamora. 

 

Note: The original “Avatar”, which debuted in theaters 13 years ago, remains the biggest movie of all time with $2.9 billion. “Avengers: Endgame” trails closely behind in second place with $2.79 billion, while “Titanic” stands as the third-highest grossing release ever with $2.19 billion.