Need to hide a messy room? Maybe you just want a fun background for your next meeting. You can do both if you know how to set a virtual background in Zoom.
Digital Trends
The EU has forced Apple to change a fundamental browser rule on iOS. Soon, iPhone users could get reimagined Chrome or Firefox browsers on their iPhone.
Digital Trends
You won’t know this company’s name, but you need to know about its plan to enter the smartwatch market — because it could change it forever.
Digital Trends
Duolingo lets you learn more than 30 languages. Here’s how to change your language on Duolingo when you want to try something new.
Digital Trends
The Motorola Razr (2023) may well be the first foldable flip phone to come at a reasonable midrange price, and that excites me. It should excite you too.
Digital Trends
iOS 17 is coming, and it may be more exciting than we had originally thought. Here’s what could be changing.
Digital Trends
Of all the world-changing technologies and innovative ideas on display at CES 2023, these ones impressed us the most.
Digital Trends
If your Pixel Buds Pro eartips are too loose or dirty, it’s recommended to change them for the best listening experience. Here’s how to get started.
Digital Trends
With iOS 16, Apple now allows customizing og the time font on your lock screen. Here’s an easy step-by-step guide to help you change the font and its color.
Digital Trends
Do you want a screen protector for your iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro? This is how Apple’s Ceramic Shield glass looks after a year of not using one.
Mobile | Digital Trends
The city of Seville is trying something new to raise awareness of climate change and save lives. With oppressive heat waves becoming a fact of life in Europe and other parts of the world, the Spanish metropolis has begun naming them. The first one, Zoe, arrived this week, bringing with it expected daytime highs above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 43 degrees Celsius).
As Time points out, there’s no single scientific definition of a heat wave. Most countries use the term to describe periods of temperatures that are higher than the historical and seasonal norms for a particular area. Seville’s new system categorizes those events into three tiers, with names reserved for the most severe ones and an escalating municipal response tied to each level. The city will designate future heat waves in reverse alphabetical order, with Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vega to follow.
It’s a system akin to ones organizations like the US National Hurricane Center have used for decades to raise awareness of impending tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. The idea is that people are more likely to take a threat seriously and act accordingly when it's given a name.
"This new method is intended to build awareness of this deadly impact of climate change and ultimately save lives," Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, the think tank that helped develop Seville’s system, told Euronews. Naming heat waves could also help some people realize that we're not dealing with occasional “freak” weather events anymore: they’re the byproduct of a warming planet.
Google’s new Play Store billing policies aren’t very popular with developers, and some are taking their disagreement to the courts.
Mobile | Digital Trends
Researchers at Stanford University have created a novel approach that allows standard image sensors to see light in three dimensions.
Mobile | Digital Trends
You can easily change the time on a Fitbit, set your preferred time zone, and even switch between a 12- or 24-hour clock. Here’s how to do it.
Mobile | Digital Trends
The COP26 climate conference has come to an end, but it probably won't satisfy some of its more outspoken critics. Reuters and The Washington Post report that the United Nations-helmed summit has reached a final deal on efforts to accelerate emissions reduction and otherwise keep to a Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5C. There are some areas where the new arrangement (billed by the UN as the Glasgow Climate Pact) may offer significant progress, but there are also concerns it doesn't hold countries to stricter standards — including a move away from coal energy.
In negotiations that extended roughly a day past the original November 12th deadline, representatives from China and India successfully changed language in the COP26 agreement that asked countries to "phase-down" unabated coal use rather than "phase-out." While COP26 president Alok Sharma and numerous countries' delegates wanted the tougher language, Sharma said it was "vital" to protect the deal. However, there are worries this will give coal-dependent countries like China and India an excuse to avoid firmer commitments to emissions reduction.
Previous critics blasted wealthier nations for failing to act on a promise of giving poorer countries $ 100 billion per year until 2023 to help them deal with climate change. The Glasgow deal only committed to making a new plan in the next three years.
The final pact does include some notable measures. It asks countries "revisit and strengthen" their climate change plans before the end of 2022, as New Scientistnoted. Similarly, there's a strategy to address long-running disputes over global carbon credit markets. Numerous countries promised to reduce methane emissions and stop deforestation, and the agreement called for reduced subsidies on fossil fuels. Separately, the US and China reached a deal to limit climate change in the 2020s, including a new recognition from China that methane had a significant impact on rising temperatures.
Nonetheless, there are fears the COP26 arrangement is generally too soft. It doesn't set many binding targets. The final language only "requests" that countries rethink their plans, for instance. The pact might prompt some countries to step up their environmental initiatives, but others may face relatively few consequences if they fall short.
November 7, 2021, marks the end of daylight saving time, and most smartphone clocks will turn back one hour automatically. Here’s how to do it, just in case.
Android | Digital Trends
The holidays are fast approaching and you know what that means: pumpkin spice everything, seasonal cheer, and family gatherings — all while avoiding your QAnon adherent relatives like the plague. But when you do eventually get cornered by them, come prepared.
In his latest book, How to Talk to a Science Denier, author Lee McIntyre examines the phenomenon of denialism, exploring the conspiracy theories that drive it, and explains how you can most effectively address your relatives' misplaced concerns over everything from mRNA vaccines to why the Earth isn't actually flat.
How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Other Who Defy Reason, by Lee McIntyre, published by The MIT Press.
Belief in conspiracy theories is one of the most toxic forms of human reasoning. This is not to say that real conspiracies do not exist. Watergate, the tobacco companies’ collusion to obfuscate the link between cigarette smoking and cancer, and the George W. Bush–era NSA program to secretly spy on civilian Internet users are all examples of real-life conspiracies, which were discovered through evidence and exposed after exhaustive investigation.
By contrast, what makes conspiracy theory reasoning so odious is that whether or not there is any evidence, the theory is asserted as true, which puts it beyond all reach of being tested or refuted by scientists and other debunkers. The distinction, therefore, should be between actual conspiracies (for which there should be some evidence) and conspiracy theories (which customarily have no credible evidence). We might define a conspiracy theory as an “explanation that makes reference to hidden, malevolent forces seeking to advance some nefarious aim.” Crucially, we need to add that these tend to be “highly speculative [and] based on no evidence. They are pure conjecture, without any basis in reality.”
When we talk about the danger of conspiracy theories for scientific reasoning, our focus should therefore be on their nonempirical nature, which means that they are not even capable of being tested in the first place. What is wrong with conspiracy theories is not normally that they have already been refuted (though many have), but that thousands of gullible people will continue to believe them even when they have been debunked.
If you scratch a science denier, chances are you’ll find a conspiracy theorist. Sadly, conspiracy theories seem to be quite common in the general population as well. In a recent study by Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood they found that 50 percent of Americans believed in at least one conspiracy theory.
This included the 9/11 truther and Obama birther conspiracies, but also the idea that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is deliberately withholding a cure for cancer, and that the Federal Reserve intentionally orchestrated the 2008 recession. (Notably, the JFK assassination conspiracy was so widely held that it was excluded from the study.)
Other common conspiracy theories — which run the range of popularity and outlandishness — are that “chemtrails” left by planes are part of a secret government mind-control spraying program, that the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were “false flag” operations, that the government is covering up the truth about UFOs, and of course the more “science-related” ones that the Earth is flat, that global warming is a hoax, that some corporations are intentionally creating toxic GMOs, and that COVID-19 is caused by 5G cell phone towers.
In its most basic form, a conspiracy theory is a non-evidentially justified belief that some tremendously unlikely thing is nonetheless true, but we just don’t realize it because there is a coordinated campaign run by powerful people to cover it up. Some have contended that conspiracy theories are especially prevalent in times of great societal upheaval. And, of course, this explains why conspiracy theories are not unique to modern times. As far back as the great fire of Rome in 64 AD, we saw conspiracy theories at work, when the citizens of Rome became suspicious over a weeklong blaze that consumed almost the entire city — while the emperor Nero was conveniently out of town. Rumors began to spread that Nero had started it in order to rebuild the city in his own design. While there was no evidence that this was true (nor for the legend that Nero sang while the city burned), Nero was apparently so upset by the accusation that he started his own conspiracy theory that it was in fact the Christians who were responsible, which led to the prevalence of burning them alive.
Here one understands immediately why conspiracy theories are anathema to scientific reasoning. In science, we test our beliefs against reality by looking for disconfirming evidence. If we find only evidence that fits our theory, then it might be true. But if we find any evidence that disconfirms our theory, it must be ruled out. With conspiracy theories, however, they don’t change their views even in the face of disconfirming evidence (nor do they seem to require much evidence, beyond gut instinct, that their views are true in the first place). Instead, conspiracy theorists tend to use the conspiracy itself as a way to explain any lack of evidence (because the clever conspirators must be hiding it) or the presence of evidence that disconfirms it (because the shills must be faking it). Thus, lack of evidence in favor of a conspiracy theory is in part explained by the conspiracy itself, which means that its adherents can count both evidence and lack of evidence in their favor.
Virtually all conspiracy theorists are what I call “cafeteria skeptics.” Although they profess to uphold the highest standards of reasoning, they do so inconsistently. Conspiracy theorists are famous for their double standard of evidence: they insist on an absurd standard of proof when it concerns something they do not want to believe, while accepting with scant to nonexistent evidence whatever they do want to believe. We have already seen the weakness of this type of selective reasoning with cherry-picking evidence. Add to this a predilection for the kind of paranoid suspicion that underlies most conspiracy-minded thinking, and we face an almost impenetrable wall of doubt. When a conspiracy theorist indulges their suspicions about the alleged dangers of vaccines, chemtrails, or fluoride — but then takes any contrary or debunking information as itself proof of a cover-up — they lock themselves in a hermetically sealed box of doubt that no amount of facts could ever get them out of. For all of their protests of skepticism, most conspiracy theorists are in fact quite gullible.
Belief in the flatness of the Earth is a great example. Time and again at FEIC 2018, I heard presenters say that any scientific evidence in favor of the curvature of the Earth had been faked. “There was no Moon landing; it happened on a Hollywood set.” “All the airline pilots and astronauts are in on the hoax.” “Those pictures from space are Photoshopped.” Not only did disconfirming evidence of these claims not cause the Flat Earthers to give up their beliefs, it was used as more evidence for the conspiracy! And of course to claim that the devil is behind the whole cover-up about Flat Earth could there be a bigger conspiracy theory? Indeed, most Flat Earthers would admit that themselves. A similar chain of reasoning is often used in climate change denial. President Trump has long held that global warming is a “Chinese hoax” meant to undermine the competitiveness of American manufacturing.
Others have contended that climate scientists are fudging the data or that they are biased because they are profiting from the money and attention being paid to their work. Some would argue that the plot is even more nefarious — that climate change is being used as a ruse to justify more government regulation or takeover of the world economy. Whatever evidence is presented to debunk these claims is explained as part of a conspiracy: it was faked, biased, or at least incomplete, and the real truth is being covered up. No amount of evidence can ever convince a hardcore science denier because they distrust the people who are gathering the evidence. So what is the explanation? Why do some people (like science deniers) engage in conspiracy theory thinking while others do not?
Various psychological theories have been offered, involving factors such as inflated self-confidence, narcissism, or low self-esteem. A more popular consensus seems to be that conspiracy theories are a coping mechanism that some people use to deal with feelings of anxiety and loss of control in the face of large, upsetting events. The human brain does not like random events, because we cannot learn from and therefore cannot plan for them. When we feel helpless (due to lack of understanding, the scale of an event, its personal impact on us, or our social position), we may feel drawn to explanations that identify an enemy we can confront. This is not a rational process, and researchers who have studied conspiracy theories note that those who tend to “go with their gut” are the most likely to indulge in conspiracy-based thinking. This is why ignorance is highly correlated with belief in conspiracy theories. When we are less able to understand something on the basis of our analytical faculties, we may feel more threatened by it.
There is also the fact that many are attracted to the idea of “hidden knowledge,” because it serves their ego to think that they are one of the few people to understand something that others don’t know. In one of the most fascinating studies of conspiracy-based thinking, Roland Imhoff invented a fictitious conspiracy theory, then measured how many subjects would believe it, depending on the epistemological context within which it was presented. Imhoff’s conspiracy was a doozy: he claimed that there was a German manufacturer of smoke alarms that emitted high-pitched sounds that made people feel nauseous and depressed. He alleged that the manufacturer knew about the problem but refused to fix it. When subjects thought that this was secret knowledge, they were much more likely to believe it. When Imhoff presented it as common knowledge, people were less likely to think that it was true.
One can’t help here but think of the six hundred cognoscenti in that ballroom in Denver. Out of six billion people on the planet, they were the self-appointed elite of the elite: the few who knew the “truth” about the flatness of the Earth and were now called upon to wake the others.
What is the harm from conspiracy theories? Some may seem benign, but note that the most likely factor in predicting belief in a conspiracy theory is belief in another one. And not all of those will be harmless. What about the anti-vaxxer who thinks that there is a government cover-
up of the data on thimerosal, whose child gives another measles? Or the belief that anthropogenic (human- caused) climate change is just a hoax, so our leaders in government feel justified in delay? As the clock ticks on averting disaster, the human consequences of the latter may end up being incalculable.
Climate change is far and away the greatest threat of the modern human era — a crisis that will only get worse the longer we dither — with American car culture as a major contributor to the nation’s greenhouse emissions. But carbon-neutralizing energ…
Engadget
Google is facing yet another fine for allegedly abusing its search ad clout, although the financial punishment this time is less serious than its implications. Arab News reports that Turkey’s Competition Board has given Google six months to change it…
Engadget
Companies have jokingly given themselves code-based names in the past (you can thank XKCD for that), but one of them was just forced to mend its ways. The Guardian reports that UK business registrar Companies House has forced a software consultant to…
Engadget
The US and Huawei have had an insane saga of trade bans, negotiations, and legal proceedings this past year. It’s been one of the most widely reported feuds ever between two entities, and at this point you have to assume there’s just too much bad blood to really work anything out. Except now it turns […]
Come comment on this article: After a huge change of heart, the US will allow US companies to work with Huawei on 5G standards
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced today he plans to contribute $ 10 billion toward fighting climate change through the creation of a new philanthropic project called the Bezos Earth Fund. "Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet," Bezos wrote…
Engadget RSS Feed
Great music videos are works of art that continue to drive cultural influence across generations. And just like priceless paintings or sculptures in museums, from time to time they need some TLC.
Now, in a pioneering partnership, YouTube is working with Universal Music Group to remaster some of the most iconic music videos of all time, to ensure current and future generations will get to enjoy these timeless classics as they’ve never before been experienced.
Starting today, exclusively on YouTube, you’ll find more than 100 music videos in the highest available video and audio quality, including titles from Billy Idol, Beastie Boys, Boyz II Men, George Strait, Janet Jackson, Kiss, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Lionel Richie, Maroon 5, Meat Loaf, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani, Smokey Robinson, The Killers, Tom Petty and more!
And this is just the beginning. YouTube and Universal Music Group are committed to fully upgrading nearly 1,000 music videos, painstakingly remastering some of the most important works in the history of the format to the highest possible standards. Each week over the next year, we’ll add more titles, with all 1,000 titles expected to be available before the end of 2020.
“It’s really an honor to partner with Universal Music Group and change the way fans around the globe will experience viewing some of the most classic and iconic videos. The quality is truly stunning,” said Stephen Bryan, Global Head of Label Relations at YouTube. “It’s our goal to ensure that today’s music videos — true works of art — meet the high quality standards that artists’ works deserve and today’s music fans expect.”
For years, some of the greatest music videos in YouTube’s catalog have been available only in the outdated standards originally intended for tube televisions with mono speakers. With this new initiative, we’re upgrading videos, vastly improving the viewing experience, whether on mobile, desktop or living room screens. The new videos will seamlessly replace the original versions on both YouTube and within YouTube Music, while retaining the same url, view-counts and “likes.”
Michael Nash, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy at UMG, said, “We’re excited to partner with YouTube to present these iconic music videos in the highest audio and video quality possible. Our recording artists and video directors imbued these videos with so much creativity; it’s great to enable the full experience of their vision and music. These videos not only look amazing on any screen now, they will be enjoyed by music fans for decades to come.”
Celebrate the anniversary of some of the most iconic music videos of all time by seeing the remastered versions for the first time ever on YouTube, including:
YouTube Music will continue to roll out remastered music videos from your favorite UMG artists, so be on the lookout for “Remastered” in the description of videos as they transform from SD to HD, exclusively on YouTube!
— YouTube Music Team
MetroPCS was recently rebranded as Metro by T-Mobile while simultaneous unveiling some plans with seriously good value. $ 60 a month is the top tier plan from the rebadged service and includes unlimited data, 15GB of mobile hotspot, Google cloud storage, and Amazon Prime. You really can’t beat that. Looks like Metro is making up their […]
Come comment on this article: Metro by T-Mobile now charges $ 15 every time you change your phone
In anticipation of the International Day for Tolerance on November 16th, we are proud to celebrate the creators who are using the power of one view to open minds, inspire understanding, celebrate culture, and make a difference. From a beauty vlogger in California to a rapper in Sudan, a painter in Germany to a comedy collective in India, YouTube’s Creators for Change program brings together storytellers from around the world to share moments of hope, humanity, and acceptance. At YouTube, we believe that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories. YouTube Creators for Change is a critical part of this mission and we are incredibly proud of the continued momentum of the creators from around the world who are using their voices to overcome divisiveness and hate.
Today, YouTube’s Creators for Change Ambassadors came together to release over 50 new films that aim to promote tolerance, encourage empathy, and spark dialogue, locally and globally.
In May we announced that 47 Global Ambassadors joined the Creators for Change program, a global initiative dedicated to amplifying and multiplying the voices of YouTube creators who are using their platforms to spread messages of positivity, hope and acceptance. Since the announcement, they’ve been working with mentors like award-winning filmmaker Eliot Rausch, the Founder of The Nzinga Effect, Eliza Anyangwe, and Anthony Robinson, the Director of Training & Public Engagement at the Truman National Security Project on persuasive storytelling and bridge-building to create inspiring Impact Films. Some highlights from this year’s films include:
Driving impact locally
In addition to the global program, creators around the world are using their voices to stand for positivity through our local chapter efforts in 9 countries. Through a combination of creator-led videos that opens minds to educational workshops that inspire critical though, local initiatives span 9 markets and continue to inspire local communities. For example:
To all the creators who participated in this year’s program: thank you. We are grateful for your passion and dedication.
— Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
A Minecraft modder has added some fresh gameplay issues for players to deal with in the form of climate change. Nick Porillo's GlobalWarming mod alters the atmosphere based on certain actions like smelting ores. Temperatures will rise as carbon emiss…
Engadget RSS Feed
A new logo for Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch has leaked, adding to the rumor pile of what’s to come later this year. This new logo seemingly confirms the name switch away from Gear to Galaxy Watch, bringing the wearable more in line with the rest of Samsung’s gadget lineup. Not only will the device sport a […]
Come comment on this article: New Samsung Galaxy Watch logo leaks, confirming name change for Samsung’s wearables
Today, we welcome 47 incredible creators to the YouTube Creators for Change program as the 2018 class of Ambassadors. This global initiative, which we kicked off in 2016, spotlights inspirational creators who use YouTube’s global reach to change conversations around tough issues and make a truly positive impact on the world. Chosen for their passion and dedication to creating social change, these YouTube creators come from over 16 countries and represent a combined audience of 20 million fans:
The 2018 class features 31 new creators as well as 16 creators from last year’s program (those returning are distinguished with a *):
As part of our $ 5M investment in this program, these creators will receive support from YouTube through a combination of project funding, mentorship opportunities, and ongoing production assistance at our YouTube Spaces. They’ll also join us for our second annual Social Impact Camp at YouTube Space London this summer. The Social Impact Camp is an exclusive two-day-long camp featuring inspirational speakers, video production workshops, and mentorship opportunities with experts as well as time for the Ambassadors to connect with one another.
We’re also joining forces with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and social change agency Love Frankie to support YouTube creators from the Asia-Pacific region who are passionate about creating social impact and tackling tough issues through their videos. First up for this new partnership will be a series of Boot Camps in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand between June – November 2018 where local creators will workshop creating content about local issues alongside experts such as NGOs, academic authorities, and subject matter specialists. Following these Boot Camps, select local creators will participate in a three-month Academy Program that includes mentoring from Creators for Change Ambassadors, local experts, and NGOs to help produce informed, high-quality content that resonates in their countries.
Over the next few months, the 2018 Creators for Change Ambassadors will kick off projects addressing hate speech, xenophobia and/or extremism through different creative forms, such as a series celebrating the Black community within Brazil and a video project that creates awareness about the negative impact that hate speech can have on mental and physical well-being. There are many more incredible ideas in the works — we can’t wait to share more from these inspiring YouTube role models soon.
To the creators who are joining us as 2018 Ambassadors: thank you. We’re humbled to be working with you on sharing your messages of hope and tolerance.
— Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
Since launching YouTube Creators for Change in September 2016, we’ve partnered with 39 inspiring creators from around the world, helping amplify their voices to counter hate and promote tolerance. Over the last year they’ve released dozens of thought-provoking videos that show the power of video to encourage empathy and understanding around the world.
Today, over a hundred YouTube creators are gathered in London for the annual Creators for Change Summit. The summit celebrates last year’s progress and fosters collaboration between leading advocates of social change for the year ahead. These creators include:
A look back at 2017
In 2017, global audiences viewed Creators for Change videos tens of millions of times, spending hundreds of thousands of hours watching this content.
Creators for Change collaborated with social impact organizations and experts in Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, France and Belgium. One example of this is the Indonesian chapter campaign #1Indonesia where YouTube creators Cameo Project teamed up with the Maarif Institute, a local NGO, on a cross-country project to encourage over 2,000 high school students from ten cities to create videos for positive change on topics that affect their communities. Topics included tolerance for ethnic and religious minorities, and digital literacy around online hoaxes.
Through Creators for Change, we’ve educated over 15,000 young people in over 200 locations through local grassroots efforts, including workshops and school programs. In fact, students surveyed in Germany and the United Kingdom reported a significant increase in confidence in their ability to identify and counter hate speech online as a result of the workshops. And we’re just getting started …
Increasing our investment in 2018
In 2018, we are continuing to invest in Creators for Change, including providing production and marketing support with a value of over $ 5M to diverse voices harnessing the power and scale of YouTube in groundbreaking, positive ways.
We will engage more creators in the program, arm the wider YouTube community with new tools and education on how to create change, and empower more young people to use their voices to encourage positive social messages.
In the coming months, we’ll announce the global recipients of the production grants we’re making available through this renewed investment.
Video is a powerful medium to open minds to new perspectives and shared experiences. Creators prove that to us every single day. And we think Creators for Change in 2018 will reach and inspire even bigger audiences.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
Many a gamer has had regrets about their choice of username — xXxDeathCrusher420xXx might not be quite so appealing in adult life as it was in your teenage years. And for PlayStation fans, that's been a big problem when your PSN name has always been…
Engadget RSS Feed
We already know that climate change might make air travel more turbulent. But now it looks like it will impact it in an even more drastic way: A new study in the journal Climatic Change examines how rising air temperatures will affect airplanes' abil…
Engadget RSS Feed
Happy Pride everyone! The LGBTQ+ community has been a vital part of YouTube for a long time, and as our CEO, Susan Wojcicki, stated last week, we want to continue supporting creators around the world who are championing the right to be themselves, love who they love, and share that experience proudly with people all across the globe.
We see firsthand how creators can be tremendous forces for good and for change. That’s why we want to shine a light on the inspirational LGBTQ+ community on YouTube who do this every day by highlighting some of their voices through our Creators for Change program. Today, YouTube Creators for Change is proud to launch #ProudToBe, our fifth annual Pride campaign.
The videos from this community are as varied and exceptional as the group of people making them: they’re encouraging, challenging, honest, fiery, tender, celebratory, funny, and totally badass. Thanks to these voices, people around the world can turn to YouTube to find a connection when they need it — especially if they live in a place where they don’t have the freedom to be themselves.
With that in mind, this year we hope people around the world will join us in celebrating these all-important everyday acts of bravery and courage – some public, some personal – that make the world better for LGBTQ+ people. If you want to be a part of our #ProudToBe campaign, simply share a video or post about the first time you decided to express yourself in a way that felt truly authentic, despite what anyone said or thought.
Whatever it was, we’re here to help share your story. Because this year we’re celebrating those moments (big and small) that unlock the Pride you feel, inspire Pride in others, and show the world what makes you #ProudToBe.
Marly Ellis, Head of YouTube Brand, recently watched “A Matter of Life or Death: LGBTQ+ Refugees | Chosen Family | Part 5.”
Back in September, YouTube announced a new program called Creators for Change, putting forward creators with big ideas to help counter xenophobia, extremism and hate with stories promoting positive change. One of our first steps was teaming up with 11 program ambassadors who are now hard at work developing unique social impact projects which range from a new web series on topics like race, religion, and sexual orientation, to a 10-city workshop series for high school and university students dedicated to creating positive content. Our local chapters in countries like Indonesia continue to promote the importance of inclusiveness among young people. And as part of this program, Google.org, our philanthropic arm, has awarded $ 2M in charitable funds to support nonprofits that promote inclusion and cross-cultural understanding to the: Active Change Foundation, Habibie Center, Maslaha, Skateistan, Southern Poverty Law Center, TAFNIT and Witness.
Mentorship and support for emerging voices is a key part of the Creators for Change program, and we’re now ready to take on our next phase. We’ve collaborated with our program ambassadors to identify new voices we’d like to support and today, we’re excited to introduce the 27 creators from around the world who will join us as the first-ever Creators for Change fellows:
Together with our ambassadors, we’re eager to support these YouTube role models as they continue to create content that challenges tough topics like hate and extremism, and spread positive messages. For starters, these Creators for Change fellows will each receive equipment and production grants to help them develop new projects and take these productions to the next level.
We’ll also give the creators production support through our YouTube Spaces, and this summer our Spaces in London, New York and Mumbai will host new social impact camps designed exclusively for our program Fellows. These three-day-long camps will include workshops on best practices for producing social change videos, 1:1 channel support from YouTube experts, as well as plenty of time for the Fellows to connect with one another and some of the global program ambassadors.
Through these new resources and programs, we’re committed to helping our new Creators for Change fellows take on new projects that help raise and amplify the issues they care about. Stay tuned for more soon and, for now, you can read about their inspiring stories at the Creators for Change site.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched this inspiring group of creators share their stories.
Back in September, we launched YouTube Creators for Change, a global initiative dedicated to amplifying (and multiplying) the voices of YouTube creators who tackle division and hate with videos and stories of hope, connection, and understanding. And as 2016 comes to a close, we’re proud to say that YouTube Creators for Change is growing.
We’ve established local Creators for Change initiatives in Australia, France, Germany, and Turkey, bringing together creators who have uploaded thousands of videos about countering hate through unity. We’ve opened up sets at YouTube Spaces in New York and Los Angeles where creators will record the first video-based StoryCorps interviews. And today, we’re thrilled to introduce our five newest Creators for Change ambassadors: All India Bakchod (India), Cameo Project (Indonesia), Dina Torkia (United Kingdom), Franchesca Ramsey (United States) and John Green (United States). You can learn more about these inspiring creators at the Creators For Change website, which launches today, too!
These new ambassadors will join the six existing ambassadors in engaging their communities on topics like hate speech, xenophobia, and extremism. And to do our part, we’re equipping each one of them with a $ 25,000 grant to use toward a social impact project of their choice. In fact, this past weekend John Green donated his grant to charity in connection with Project for Awesome, a live-streamed annual fundraiser that brings together video creators from all over the world who support charities that, as the vlogbrothers say, “decrease world suck.”
In the coming months, our 11 ambassadors will also help us choose creators who are already making their voices heard on social issues that matter to them. And as part of our original $ 1M commitment, each of these emerging creators will be given equipment and production grants. They’ll also receive mentorship support from the program ambassadors and an opportunity to participate in educational workshops at our YouTube Spaces.
Finally, to help all those creators who want to use their voices and videos to take on topics they care about, we’ve collaborated with Upworthy to create a helpful series of best practices for creating effective social-change videos.
You can find this video, information on all our ambassadors and more on the YouTube Creators for Change website. So check it out! And stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched “This Christian community opened its heart to new Muslim neighbors.”
Diversity is our nation’s strength, yet in America today, we are seeing new levels of fear and misunderstanding. It’s never been more important to sit down and listen to each other — hear each other’s stories, learn about what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, and remember what makes us unique and what we all have in common.
That’s why we launched our YouTube Creators for Change program back in September, an initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of YouTube role models who are tackling division and hate by creating videos that share stories of hope, connection and understanding. Today we’re introducing our latest initiative in this program: a new partnership with StoryCorps, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording and archiving oral stories from all Americans.
Through this new collaboration, we’re teaming up with StoryCorps to help start a national conversation about identity and belonging in America, beginning with a production program at the YouTube Spaces in L.A. and N.Y. in December. At these Spaces, we will create custom-built sets that look and feel like the iconic StoryCorps recording booths where participating creators will help extend StoryCorps recordings to video. These creators will be able to come in with a friend, loved one or person they respect to talk about their experiences in our country as it stands today – both the good and bad.
As part of YouTube Creators for Change, we’re also proud to support the StoryCorps’ campaign #WhoWeAre, created in partnership with Upworthy. The #WhoWeAre series features animated stories of everyday Americans selected from the StoryCorps archive that help us remember our best selves.
We hope these conversations will inspire people around the country to reflect and share their own personal stories about who they are and who they want to be. We’re thrilled to be working with StoryCorps on bringing their approach to listening and recognizing our shared humanity to video, and can’t wait to share more on our work together in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of Public Policy for YouTube, recently watched #WhoWeAre.
Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog
What would the world look like if only 20 percent of women knew how to write? How many fewer great books would there be? How many important stories would go unreported? How many innovations would we lose? How many brilliant women would be unable to fulfill their potential?
That’s not just a theoretical question. Today, only a small minority of women know how to write code. That limits their ability to participate in a growing part of our global economy. It limits their ability to affect change as entire industries are transformed by technology. And it limits their potential to impact millions of lives through the power of code.
To change this trajectory, we need to do all we can to inspire women and girls that learning to code is critical to creating a brighter future for everyone. That’s why I’m excited to share that, today, Google’s Made with Code, together with YouTube, is teaming up with the Global Citizen Festival and millions of teen girls to ignite a movement for young women to change the world through the power of code.
Over the last five years, millions of Global Citizens have influenced world leaders and decision makers, and contributed to shaping our world for the better. As we’ve seen this movement grow, we’ve learned about some incredible women who saw problems in their communities and realized that the biggest impact they could have was through computer science. They’ve used an interest in computer science and tech to help the homeless, stop sexual assault, and bridge the gender gap in technology – check out their stories here:
These women are doing big things, blazing a path for the next generation of girls, but they can’t do it alone. The vast potential around using code to improve the world cannot be realized if there are only a few voices influencing how it’s shaped. That’s why, today, we’re inviting teen girls everywhere to join the movement. Our new coding project gives young women a chance to make their voice heard by coding a statement about the change they want to see in the world.
This week, hundreds of thousands of girls from around the country have already used code to share their vision for a better, more inclusive, more equitable world:
These coded designs will be displayed onstage at the Global Citizen Festival, as symbols of the many different voices from teen girls, standing up for the change they want to see in the world.
Together with musicians, sisters, YouTube sensations and newly minted coders, Chloe x Halle, teen girls are getting their start in code
Our efforts go well beyond this project. Made with Code is joining forces with Iridescent and UN Women to support the launch of the Technovation Challenge 2017 which gives girls the opportunity to build their own apps that tackle the real-life issues they see around them.
Please tune into the Global Citizen Festival livestream at youtube.com/globalcitizen on September 24 to catch all the action. And, more importantly, join us and encourage the young women in your life to try out coding and contribute their ideas for how to make a better future.
Video affects us like no other medium. It can heighten our passions, stoke our fears, awaken us to new experiences and make our hearts ache. It can educate, build understanding and even change the way we see our world. In fact, over half of our millennial subscribers have said a YouTube creator has changed their life.
At a time when the internet is criticized for fueling division and distrust, we want to help demonstrate the incredible power YouTube has to generate a positive social impact. That’s why today, we’re introducing a new global program called YouTube Creators for Change, as well as new resources and grants dedicated to social change work.
YouTube Creators for Change is a new initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of role models who are tackling difficult social issues with their channels. From combating hate speech, to countering xenophobia and extremism, to simply making the case for greater tolerance and empathy toward others, these creators are helping generate positive social change with their global fan bases.
Our first six Creators for Change ambassadors are Natalie Tran (Australia), Abdel en Vrai (Belgium), Nilam Farooq (Germany), Omar Hussein (Saudi Arabia), Barış Özcan (Turkey), and Humza Arshad (United Kingdom).
We’ll be introducing other ambassadors soon, and we will be sharing their stories — starting with Humza Arshad whose “Diary of a Badman” series is helping redefine what it means to be a young Muslim today in the U.K. Since video is such a powerful form of expression, watch and learn more about how Humza is using comedy to create change:
Over the next year, program ambassadors will drive greater awareness of social issues and foster productive dialogue around these topics through the videos they create. They’ll also help identify and empower emerging creators who also want to speak out on these crucial topics. To support and amplify ambassadors and emerging creators alike, we are committing $ 1M in equipment and production grants as part of the Creators for Change program. We’ll also welcome these creators at new programs at YouTube Spaces throughout the year, so stay tuned for more details soon.
Our efforts don’t stop here — we’ll also continue working with NGOs, schools, and media companies around the world to launch more local programs as part of Creators for Change. We recently introduced a program in France that brought together more than 700 participants who created 140 videos under the theme of fraternité. In Germany, YouTube creators joined forces under #NichtEgal, a movement dedicated to unite Germans in countering online hate.
We’re also pleased to announce that Google.org, our philanthropic arm, is establishing a $ 2M charitable fund to support nonprofits working on innovative solutions that promote inclusion and cross-cultural understanding.
We hope these new programs and resources will continue making YouTube a place where anyone can have a voice and where anyone can use the power of video to help generate positive social change.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched “Web Rangers – ORT Sajur 2016.”
Technology is hoping to turn empathy into action. Or at least, the United Nations is hoping to do so. The intergovernmental organization is 71 at this point, but it’s constantly finding new ways to better the world’s citizenry.
The post How the UN thinks virtual reality could not only build empathy, but catalyze change, too appeared first on Digital Trends.
Although it tends look to the sky, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) came back down to Earth to develop RoBattle, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that may soon be tasked with the type of risky missions typically assigned to foot soldiers.
The post Israel’s new ‘RoBattle’ bot is built with swappable modules that change its abilities appeared first on Digital Trends.
Imagine if instead of pulling your phone out to look at a notification you could just look at your sleeve? These color-changing threads, developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, could one day make that a reality.
The post These threads can change color and could one day make your shirt a display appeared first on Digital Trends.
A team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a new method to detect what kind of mycorrhizae are attached to the roots of trees using only satellite images. Mycorrhizae are fungi that form mutually beneficial relationships with the root…
Engadget RSS Feed
Twitter has enabled its algorithmic timeline by default, but it can easily be turned off. All you have to do is head to settings and uncheck a box, after which your posts will be ranked chronologically once again.
The post Twitter’s algorithmic timeline is on by default, but you can change it back appeared first on Digital Trends.
MotusGlobal, famous for saving pitcher’s arms with the mThrow, today announced a full body tracking system for baseball players called the MotusPro. Sensors fitted to a shirt, gloves, and shoes track millions of data points per movement for analysis.
The post New MotusPro tracking lab could change the way baseball players train appeared first on Digital Trends.
From seasons to octopuses and chocolate, environmental issues stand to impact the things we love. What if we could help change the way people discuss climate change, so that the issue and its consequences could become more relevant and tangible to people around the world?
Leading up to COP21, a conference which will bring leaders from around the world together to develop a global climate agreement, we’re encouraging the YouTube community to join the discussion by uploading their own videos that share their concerns about how environmental issues may impact the things they love. The conversation on YouTube will live through a simple hashtag: #OursToLose.
With the help of YouTube creators from around the world, including Casey Neistat (U.S.), Finn Harries (U.K.), Golden Moustache (France), Jamie Curry (New Zealand) and Flavia Calina (Brazil), we’re also encouraging people to show further support by signing the Avaaz petition, a campaign aimed at delivering clean energy worldwide by 2050.
Whether you’re questioning how global warming can impact your day-to-day life, curious about new sources of energy, or concerned about the melting Arctic, we hope that you share your ideas through #OursToLose videos to help make the climate conversation more accessible to people around the world.
The YouTube community can empower tremendous collaboration, advocacy, and creativity. Through #OursToLose, we hope to continue helping people to broadcast their message, empower their communities, and even catalyze a global movement to further action on climate change.
Marc Hertz, Programming Coordinator, recently watched “Misconceptions about Climate Change” and Aaron Taylor, Associate Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “What’s Possible: The UN Climate Summit Film.”
In an interview yesterday evening at the WSJD Live event in Laguna Beach, California, Tim Cook didn't spend too much time talking about phones and computers. Rather, he chatted about the company's newest and more forward-thinking endeavors like the…
Engadget RSS Feed
EnLighten taps into your city’s traffic control system to know when lights will change, advise your speed accordingly, and save you gas and aggravation.
The post Stop wasting gas in the city with the app that knows when traffic lights will change appeared first on Digital Trends.