Social Networks

An article from Instagram has launched a new promotional push which celebrates the diversity of Instagram users, under the slogan “Who We Become is Yours to Make.” As explained by Instagram: "After a year that challenged everything we thought was normal and possible, a new campaign from Instagram denounces “going back to normal” because normal was never good enough. It’s a rallying cry of progress, optimism, and reinvention as we look back on this past year, empowering people with the message that “Who We Become is Yours to Make”. The campaign, shot by Photographer Bella Newman, features a collection of Instagram creators in portraits inspired by their own stories. The portraits will be displayed "in culturally and contextually relevant locations", in an effort to spark more discussion, and bring a broader range of users into the app. Maximizing inclusion has been a key theme for Instagram over the past year, with a range of new options added into the Instagram ecosystem to both facilitate expression and manage your in-app experience. In May, Instagram added a new 'Pronouns' option on user profiles, which enables users to select up to four pronouns so that people know how they should be referred to within interactions,…

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has long contradicted health experts by claiming cloth masks are ineffective in limiting the spread of the coronavirus. After making that claim in a video on YouTube last week, he was tossed off the platform for a week. YouTube said it violated the site's ban on misinformation. Paul firing back, describing it as "a badge of honor," tweeting, "Leftwing cretins at YouTube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don't work." A badge of honor . . . leftwing cretins at Youtube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don’t work. If you want to see the banned video go to Liberty Tree https://t.co/gsTUwuLZGL — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 10, 2021 Lisa Macpherson, a policy expert at Public Knowledge, an organization promoting freedom of expression online, said she understands why the video sharing site made that call.  "Public Knowledge has done a lot of research and tracking on how all of the digital platforms managed the onslaught of misinformation about COVID-19," Macpherson said. "One of the things that we learned, unfortunately, is information…

The only full catalog quest on Shacknews Twitch, skankcore64, continues. Join Bryan for more Paper Mario later tonight! Happy hump day to my fellow Shackers! It's been quieter than usual on Shacknews Twitch in terms of retro gaming this week but tonight I'm back in the business of nostalgic Nintendo 64 livestreaming. The journey known as skankcore64 continues with more Paper Mario at 9 p.m. PT/ 12 a.m. ET as I try to complete every N64 game released in North America. Antecedently on skankcore64, I started off the stream with just a few more favors from old Koopa Koot. Not the most engaging or glamourous part of Paper Mario, mind you, but still adorable nonetheless. Again, the recently recovered warp pipes were indispensible here, making light work of what would have been an easy hour of backtracking. With a quick three Star Piece reward, I did make my way to Lavalava Island and Yoshi's Village to start Chapter 5 as promised. After meeting most of the villagers and the rambunctious lot of little Yoshi younglings, I was tasked with finding the rascals when they escaped from the sight of their Cheep-Cheep babysitter, Sushie. Since I took Sushie straight from Lavalava Island back…

Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app. If you still doubt it, Instagram Manager Said text last month. Under the auspices of Facebook, the application has evolved into an instant messaging, video platform and shopping service. Is this too much for you who just want to show your pictures to your friends? A new app may win your heart. Created by a former Facebook designer and back-end engineer, glass Directly aimed at people who are frustrated with Instagram. The app is focused on sharing photos: no videos, no ads, not even likes. glass “If we launch a similar feature , it will remain private. We intentionally avoid displaying public meters, explains designer Tom Watson to blogger Om Malik. We don’t want Glass to turn into a popularity contest. We don’t welcome influencers, we welcome photographers. “ Highlights EXIF ​​data (camera model, ISO, aperture, etc.) of shots to foster conversation about glass shots. The two creators hope to mobilize an eclectic community of amateur and professional photographers.  » Read More

By Drew Miller HyndmanBBC OuchAnita, 30, is a full-time carer for her mum. For the hundreds of thousands of gamers who visit her on Twitch, she's also known as the sassy and challenging Sweet Anita, a video gamer and streamer. But for a while she was waiting to be thrown off the platform for breaking all the rules.With practiced self-awareness, Anita broadcasts a daily mix of gaming, chatting with other streamers and fun challenges like building card towers.She has Tourette's syndrome - a neurological condition which amongst other things causes people to make involuntary sounds or movements.Though it's a condition which is better known in recent years, people are still full of questions because of its nature.When she first started broadcasting on the well-known platform Twitch, Anita feared she would be thrown off because her verbal tics are of the kind known as coprolalia, where you might swear or say inappropriate things. Anita has cussed everyone from Queen Elizabeth II through to Jesus and beyond as well as making many explicit references to sex acts, body parts and what your parents would think of as the worst swear words."It feels like you're being physically forced to say these things," she…

The Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians are playing a three-game series in Cleveland this week, and Wednesday’s game is now dealing with a rain delay. The game was set to start just after 7 p.m., but first pitch remains on hold. Players are doing what they can to keep themselves occupied, and the team social media employees are doing the same. The A’s Twitter account decided to ping the Indians’ account and start up a friendly game of Connect 4. We’re off and running and it’s going about how you’d expect. There have been Guardians jokes, Moneyball jokes, and blown lead jokes. Neither side has gained a clear advantage in the game and moves are starting to take a little longer to sort out. Strategy is critical in Connect 4 and neither side is prepared to give an inch. It’s not entirely clear how long this rain delay will last, but in the meantime, we’ll continue updating this tenses Connect 4 contest. .@Indians: The people expect a game. We give them a game. Connect 4, you first.⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️— Oakland A's (@Athletics) August 11, 2021 Game on.⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ ⚪️⚪️⚪️— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) August 11, 2021 tip: don't blow the lead ⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ ⚪️⚪️⚪️— Oakland…

Bernard MendezBernard Mendez is an editorial intern at dot.LA. He attends UCLA, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics. Mendez was previously an editor at the Daily Bruin, the student newspaper at UCLA. While working as a marketing executive at Snapchat, James Borow saw small businesses had a harder time competing with larger companies when it came to advertising. He and a group of Snap employees had the idea to start Trust, a company aiming to make the advertising process friendlier for smaller ecommerce companies and direct-to-consumer brands."We kept hearing from small businesses 'it's really hard to compete against the big guys, unless you have an inside track or unless you have a lot of capital," said Borow, the CEO and co-founder of Trust. "That's really where we had the idea of: what if we could flip it on its head and have all these businesses help one another so they can actually go ahead and compete?"The Santa Monica-based startup raised $9 million in a round of seed funding, the company announced Wednesday. The round was led by Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures and Upper90.Trust gives companies a card through Stripe that increases its…

Olena Zaskochenko/123rfA long message landed on Claire's phone, before quickly disappearing. Ben wanted out, but she wasn't sure why.This story was first published on capsulenz.com. Claire* couldn’t quite believe it when her husband broke up with her… and then the message disappeared. “Do you want to take a walk on the beach?” asked Ben*. He and Claire had just had a romantic dinner, right by the sea on their first night away in Rarotonga. Two weeks earlier she’d turned 30, so the holiday was a birthday celebration/long overdue break. And something about the way Ben was acting, immediately made Claire feel suspicious, so when he stopped, and dropped to one knee she wasn’t overly surprised, but was thrilled. READ MORE: * The Divorce Diaries: 'I literally got ghosted by my own husband' * Five beautiful things I learned about resilience from my Nana * Jennifer Aniston shares shirtless photo of ex Justin Theroux in birthday tribute * The Divorce Diaries: He left me, then went on our honeymoon... with my friend They’d been talking about marriage for the last few months and 30 seemed like the time to get serious, they’d been dating since they were 21 and living together…

A leaked video provides an in-depth look at the next installment in Microsoft's real-time strategy game, the the long-awaited Age of Empires IV. Over an hour and a half of leaked gameplay footage from the long-awaited Age of Empires IV from Microsoft shows off some of the familiar interfaces and new graphics. Posted to Vimeo, the Portuguese version of the game follows the Chinese dynasty as it grows from a small settlement to a large and powerful civilization. Over the course of the video, the player befriends the yellow team, their closest neighbor, and goes to war with the red team to the south. They advance through several ages, upgrading buildings and units along the way until finally achieving victory. At first, the villagers are shown gathering familiar game resources, like food from sheep and berries, wood from trees and minerals from rocky outcroppings. They also build resource gathering points such as mills, mines and lumber camps to help collect those resources further away from the Town Center. All the while, explorers reveal the game map all around the start point, finding more resources, other civilizations, and a "holy place" marked with a flag atop ruins. The trademark vocal and sound…

by Alex Billington August 11, 2021Source: YouTube "How are you so kind?" Here's yet another outstanding stop-motion animated short film we just have to feature. Fish Boy is a short film made by filmmaker Anita Bruvere as her final graduation project at the National Film & Television School in the UK. It's described as a "surrealist tale about the all-encompassing nature of living with guilt." The poetic short features a guilt-ridden "Fish Boy" and a woman named Laura - voiced by Hugh Skinner and Emily Taaffe. Fish Boy lives in darkness, his guilt about the past slowly consuming him. His girlfriend Laura is a light of hope in his dark world. But despite his efforts… his past continues to chase him, putting them both in danger. This short has some really mesmerizing texture and designs. The water & waves especially are so stunning with all the different fabrics in motion. Watch below. Thanks to Short of the Week for the tip on this. Brief description from YouTube: "Fish Boy lives in darkness, his guilt about the past slowly consuming him." Fishboy, also written as Fish Boy, is directed by London-based animation filmmaker Anita Bruvere - you can see even more…