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This Guy Became An Expert On Syrian Arms Trafficking, Just By Watching YouTube Last October, Eliot Higgins, a 34-year-old resident of Leicester, England, lost his job. With time to waste, he turned to YouTube. Now, he’s one of the world’s foremost experts on the flow of illegal weapons into war-torn Syria. Huh? Higgins’s unlikely story was covered recently in the Guardian. “Before the Arab spring I knew no more about weapons than the average Xbox owner,” he told the paper. Now, thanks to a steady stream of videos that have leaked out of the country and onto the web, he knows more than just about anyone without a security clearance, keeping a blog under the alias Brown Moses that has served as a vital resource for reporters and human rights activists alike. The idea of an armchair weapons expert is an incredible one, but it’s the type of thing that will only become more common in the future. With the decline of print media, newsroom staffs are leaner than ever. Add a deluge of crowdsourced reporting, and it’s not surprising that there’s important stuff out there waiting to be processed—be it YouTube videos of trafficked weapons or secret bases on Bing Maps. Find out more here. What do you think of the idea of an ‘armchair weapons expert’?

This Guy Became An Expert On Syrian Arms Trafficking, Just By Watching YouTube

Last October, Eliot Higgins, a 34-year-old resident of Leicester, England, lost his job. With time to waste, he turned to YouTube. Now, he’s one of the world’s foremost experts on the flow of illegal weapons into war-torn Syria. Huh?

Higgins’s unlikely story was covered recently in the Guardian. “Before the Arab spring I knew no more about weapons than the average Xbox owner,” he told the paper.

Now, thanks to a steady stream of videos that have leaked out of the country and onto the web, he knows more than just about anyone without a security clearance, keeping a blog under the alias Brown Moses that has served as a vital resource for reporters and human rights activists alike.

The idea of an armchair weapons expert is an incredible one, but it’s the type of thing that will only become more common in the future. With the decline of print media, newsroom staffs are leaner than ever. Add a deluge of crowdsourced reporting, and it’s not surprising that there’s important stuff out there waiting to be processed—be it YouTube videos of trafficked weapons or secret bases on Bing Maps.

Find out more here.

What do you think of the idea of an ‘armchair weapons expert’?

Here are some excerpts from the April issue cover story“Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Ben Stiller, And The Rebels Saving Hollywood” Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the music business, a cadre of digital pioneers is rebooting the entertainment industry. “These pioneers seem to have learned from the mistakes of the music and newspaper businesses, which have been decimated by technological change. Rather than be reactionary and afraid, the New Hollywood crowd is proactive and creative. They’re rethinking their business and adopting some of the tech world’s culture, attitudes, and practices.   “While its financial bets are iffy, there’s no question that Hollywood culture is, in fact, changing—and fast. It’s something that’s forced on the industry as the line between digital and traditional content blurs more and more. When you combine web series such as H+, an apocalyptic sci-fi tale produced by X-Men director Bryan Singer; programming likeHouse of Cards and Battleground from Netflix and Hulu, respectively; and all the professional programming on YouTube’s Original Channels, you get a redefinition of what Hollywood content can look like and how it’s made.” Here is the full story. And here are a few more stories from our Digital Hollywood series: The Secret (Tech) Life of Ben Stiller The Innovators of Hollywood

Here are some excerpts from the April issue cover story“Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Ben Stiller, And The Rebels Saving Hollywood”

Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the music business, a cadre of digital pioneers is rebooting the entertainment industry.

“These pioneers seem to have learned from the mistakes of the music and newspaper businesses, which have been decimated by technological change. Rather than be reactionary and afraid, the New Hollywood crowd is proactive and creative. They’re rethinking their business and adopting some of the tech world’s culture, attitudes, and practices.  


“While its financial bets are iffy, there’s no question that Hollywood culture is, in fact, changing—and fast. It’s something that’s forced on the industry as the line between digital and traditional content blurs more and more. When you combine web series such as H+, an apocalyptic sci-fi tale produced by X-Men director Bryan Singer; programming likeHouse of Cards and Battleground from Netflix and Hulu, respectively; and all the professional programming on YouTube’s Original Channels, you get a redefinition of what Hollywood content can look like and how it’s made.”

Here is the full story.

And here are a few more stories from our Digital Hollywood series:



The lastest in Ken Block’s driftastic series earned over 20 million views in its first week. In the hands of director Ben Conrad and veteran rally driver Ken Block, any drab stretch of concrete can be transformed into a vehicular playground. Block, who is also the founder of DC Shoes, became an Internet sensation in 2008, when he uploaded a video of himself practicing a little known motorsport called gymkhana, in which a skilled driver maneuvers a vehicle through an obstacle course. Watching Block’s gymkhana was a little like watching a floor exercise in Olympic gymnastics, but instead of sporting a leotard and bounding across a spring floor, he was strapped into a tricked-out, 650-horsepower rally car and let loose on an abandoned air field. The video went viral overnight. How To Create A Viral Blockbuster The Gymkhana Way

The lastest in Ken Block’s driftastic series earned over 20 million views in its first week.

In the hands of director Ben Conrad and veteran rally driver Ken Block, any drab stretch of concrete can be transformed into a vehicular playground. Block, who is also the founder of DC Shoes, became an Internet sensation in 2008, when he uploaded a video of himself practicing a little known motorsport called gymkhana, in which a skilled driver maneuvers a vehicle through an obstacle course. Watching Block’s gymkhana was a little like watching a floor exercise in Olympic gymnastics, but instead of sporting a leotard and bounding across a spring floor, he was strapped into a tricked-out, 650-horsepower rally car and let loose on an abandoned air field. The video went viral overnight.

How To Create A Viral Blockbuster The Gymkhana Way


YouTube Introduces Face-Blurring Tool YouTube has now launched a new tool for users in dangerous environments—a facial obscurer that digitizes faces in videos uploaded to YouTube. The algorithm-driven feature allows authors to automatically blur the faces in any video, public or private, on YouTube. A post on YouTube’s official blog also indicates the feature is aimed towards parents who do not want their children identified in publicly available video clips. The facial obscurer is based on existing technology from Witness, a New York-based human rights video organization cofounded by musician Peter Gabriel. YouTube and Witness have had an ongoing relationship; the two collaborated (along with Storyful) on the recent launch of YouTube’s Human Rights Channel, which curates citizen journalism and news from unfree societies in a one-stop shop for activists, politicians, journalists, and interested members of the public. Read more->

YouTube Introduces Face-Blurring Tool

YouTube has now launched a new tool for users in dangerous environments—a facial obscurer that digitizes faces in videos uploaded to YouTube. The algorithm-driven feature allows authors to automatically blur the faces in any video, public or private, on YouTube. A post on YouTube’s official blog also indicates the feature is aimed towards parents who do not want their children identified in publicly available video clips.

The facial obscurer is based on existing technology from Witness, a New York-based human rights video organization cofounded by musician Peter Gabriel. YouTube and Witness have had an ongoing relationship; the two collaborated (along with Storyful) on the recent launch of YouTube’s Human Rights Channel, which curates citizen journalism and news from unfree societies in a one-stop shop for activists, politicians, journalists, and interested members of the public.

Read more->

What could have been yet another shrill Internet one-off has turned into a true, ongoing sensation. There is an Annoying Orange videogame, T-shirts sold in JCPenney, and now a Cartoon Network series, debuting Monday, June 11. The original Annoying Orange Web series is still going strong, with more than 1.4 billion YouTube views, 2.4 million subscribers and a whopping 153 episodes so far. TURNING A YOUTUBE HIT INTO A TV SHOW: THE ANNOYING STORY OF A MULTI-PLATFORM ORANGE

What could have been yet another shrill Internet one-off has turned into a true, ongoing sensation. There is an Annoying Orange videogame, T-shirts sold in JCPenney, and now a Cartoon Network series, debuting Monday, June 11. The original Annoying Orange Web series is still going strong, with more than 1.4 billion YouTube views, 2.4 million subscribers and a whopping 153 episodes so far.

TURNING A YOUTUBE HIT INTO A TV SHOW: THE ANNOYING STORY OF A MULTI-PLATFORM ORANGE

TED-Ed’s New Video Tool Allows Anyone To Create Video Lessons Online TED-Ed’s new free platform allows anyone to “flip” any video on YouTube by adding custom content to play alongside it, making it possible to turn any piece of video content into a teachable moment. Read more->

TED-Ed’s New Video Tool Allows Anyone To Create Video Lessons Online

TED-Ed’s new free platform allows anyone to “flip” any video on YouTube by adding custom content to play alongside it, making it possible to turn any piece of video content into a teachable moment.

Read more->

Royal Wedding Maniaaaahhhhh! Have you had enough yet? But wait… there’s more! YouTube will be streaming the upcoming Royal Wedding in Britain, live. It’s the biggest gig Google has landed yet, as the event will garner the attention of billions of people around the world—many of whom will watch online. Can Google handle the data load? (Picture Above Via pleasedontsqueezetheshaman)

Royal Wedding Maniaaaahhhhh! Have you had enough yet? But wait… there’s more!

YouTube will be streaming the upcoming Royal Wedding in Britain, live. It’s the biggest gig Google has landed yet, as the event will garner the attention of billions of people around the world—many of whom will watch online. Can Google handle the data load?

(Picture Above Via pleasedontsqueezetheshaman)

(via flavorpill)