It’s the start of a new month and news from around the globe keeps on rolling in. This week we’ve learnt the power of YouTube, its content creators and their followers and how they’re working together for the greater good.
We also focus on the Western Australian Government’s foreign language road signs initiative that aims to save lives and we delve into the world of deepfake videos. Are they as dangerous as they seem? And what can we really believe?
1. West Australian government installs foreign language signs on deadly tourist roads
In effort to keep the roads safe for tourists and locals alike, the WA Government has begun to implement road signs in various languages. WA’s Indian Ocean Drive is a notorious hotspot for motor vehicle accidents with many of the people dying in these accidents being from European countries.
“WA Transport minister Rita Saffioti said it’s about ensuring everything possible is being done to keep motorists safe…Advisory signage with symbolic “keep left” arrows, and “keep left” spelled in German, French and Simplified Mandarin will be installed.”
If proven successful, the signs will be installed in more popular tourist driven roads across Western Australia.
2. Deepfakes: is seeing still believing?
If you’re yet to witness deepfake videos, just know that when done correctly they are both highly convincing and at times very unnerving at just how real these videos seem. Watch this equally impressive and somewhat unsettling example here.
In this new era of fake news and unable to believe everything we see and hear on the Internet, are deepfakes further proof of impending doom?
This well-thought-out piece looks into just how dangerous deepfake videos are and what the legal implications could be (if any).
3. ‘The largest YouTube collaboration ever’ wants to plant 20 million trees
Youtube content creators are working towards the gargantuan goal of planting 20 million trees and looks like they may just make it happen.
Influencer Destin Sandlin said, “Something needs to happen, so we’re just going to do it…We’re not going to wait for policies; we’re not going to wait for anything like that. We’re just going to do things because we know how, and we’re able to. But that being said, it’s not limited to the younger generation. This is everybody. We want no boundaries, no borders on this at all. It’s all ‘we and us,’ and we’re all planting trees, which is awesome.”
For every dollar donated to the Arbor Day Foundation, one tree will be planted. At time of writing the #TeamTrees effort has raised $8 million USD with $1 million being donated by Elon Musk.
4. The financial benefits of being bilingual
One study has to lead to research that suggests that by being bilingual you are more likely to be less emotionally invested in your financial transactions.
Conducted by Mustafa Karatas of Koç University in Turkey, the study had bilingual participants decided on the amount they’d sell an item for.
When they were deciding on the amount in their native language, the price at which they would sell the item was significantly higher compared to those who were selling in their non-native language.
It appears the psychological phenomenon known as the endowment effect (where a person who has an emotional investment in an item values it at a higher cost than a potential buyer), does not effect a person when they not interacting in their native language.
Read more here
5. 17 of the funniest movie title translations, from The Full Monty to Knocked Up
The act of translation is amazing and at times downright hilarious, this fun article highlights 17 movie translation titles that will have you giggling. Favourites include Knocked Up being translated in Chinese as One Night Big Belly and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me being translated to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Behaved Very Nicely Around Me in Malaysian. Special credit goes to the Chinese translation of The Sixth Sense which almost gives away the twist! (NB we’re not mentioning exactly what the twist is in case you still haven’t seen the movie. FYI it’s been 20 years! We’re being very kind to you!)
Conclusion
Please connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook for any comments, questions, or just to keep up to date with the work we do!
We are very grateful for your support!
Thank you for reading this news item! We hope you found it interesting. Let us know at hello@videotranslator.ai!
