Riding the school bus is generally an uneventful experience outside of the occasional fight or someone sitting in you seat. In Milwaukee, students and the bus driver had a more exciting trip than any of them planned. As the bus driver, Imunek Williams, was nearing the school to drop off a bus full of children, the bus started filling with smoke.
Williams, who is eight months pregnant, told WISN, “I started to smell something funny at the stoplight, and I just thought it was normal smoke coming from another car, because I always smell smoke or weird smells.”
But the smoke only got thicker as they continued to drive. It was then that Williams knew that she had to make a decision quickly to save herself and the kids entrusted to her care. The bus was only a half mile away from the school when the mom-to-be attempted to radio in the condition of the bus to dispatch.
“I couldn’t barely get what I was trying to say out because of the smoke was hitting me in the face in my eyes so I was just like OK forget the radio. Just got the kids off the bus,” Williams told WTMJ.
It was clear that she was in a race against time with how quickly the bus was overcome with smoke. Thankfully, Williams was able to get all 32 kids off the bus and lined up along the fence before it burst into flames.
“I was the last person off once I get off, I turned around and I just seen flames,” said Williams told WTMJ. “I wanted to make sure that I was safe, baby was safe and you know if it was my kid on the bus I would’ve wanted one of the bus drivers to act the same way that I did.”
None of the children suffered injuries and the soon-to-be new mom was treated for smoke inhalation and was able to return to work the following day. You can watch the incredible story below.
Childcare in America has been an issue since well before most of us were born, and it continues to be a struggle for parents. Daycare costs are rough—at one point in time, I paid $276 a week for one child to attend a daycare center, and that’s not even the highest price I was quoted. But not everyone can afford the cost of childcare, and when you have multiple children who all need adult supervision, the cost can become astronomical.
The cost of childcare can cause some parents to make the decision to stay home while the other works if the family can survive on one income. In other instances, parents may be working from home while also juggling full-time parenting responsibilities. For parents in the latter category, one mom’s new email signature is serving as a reminder that childcare is expensive and school is out for the summer.
Some folks who saw my email signature commented on it, so I wanted to share. The US is the only developed nation w/o subsidized childcare. Adding it would increase our GDP over 1 trillion dollars. Not a handout — it’s a smart decision when facing a recession and labor shortages. pic.twitter.com/iZGLMg1PJW
Meg St-Esprit was in the process of looking up babysitters and summer camps and realizing how unaffordable it was to try to accommodate four children when a “snippy” email came through, according to Today.com.
“In the moment, I was like: ‘This is how it’s going to be — people are going to need to know that this is how it’s going to be for the next couple months,'” St-Esprit, told Today.com. “I’m still good at my job. I’m still a professional. I’m also a mom of four kids and this is reality in America.”
St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so while her job may allow her to have some flexibility, people still expect prompt replies to correspondence. This mom decided that instead of adding additional stress to her plate, she would be brutally honest in her email signature. Honestly, the signature is pretty darn accurate. There are plenty of families in similar situations that probably wish they could change their email signature to something similar.
The signature reads, “Please note I may be slower to respond to email in the months of June, July and August due to the United States’ inability to provide affordable childcare for working mothers.”
St-Esprit shared a photo of her email signature to Twitter where she received a lot of support from other parents. She wrote about the benefits of universal subsidized childcare for the United States, saying, “The US is the only developed nation w/o subsidized childcare. Adding it would increase our GDP over 1 trillion dollars. Not a handout — it’s a smart decision when facing a recession and labor shortages.”
While states do offer childcare assistance for lower-income families, the threshold can unintentionally cause parents to make difficult decisions to keep their childcare subsidy. I recall a phone call made by a parent who attended my child’s daycare. The mom was explaining to her partner that she was given a promotion, but after speaking to the daycare director, if she took the raise, she would lose her subsidy and they would suddenly be responsible for paying nearly $900 a week. My eyes bulged at the thought, and as she collected her twins from my son’s classroom, she pondered accepting the position but asking to keep the same pay because the new cost of daycare would essentially be a pay cut.
Today I went to my 4yo’s PreK Counts classroom for yoga with a special grownup. This is the only subsidized childcare my children have been able to access as middle earners and it’s been a GIFT. It also reduces educational costs long term because of the early education benefits. pic.twitter.com/hYUt5h129h
I have no idea what the outcome was in that situation because I was just a bystander, but the conversation stuck with me. It partly stuck out because I could’ve benefitted from a subsidy and partly because many middle-class families struggle with affording childcare but don’t qualify for any sort of program to assist.
In a different tweet, St-Esprit also mentions this in-between experience.
“Today I went to my 4yo’s PreK Counts classroom for yoga with a special grownup. This is the only subsidized childcare my children have been able to access as middle earners and it’s been a GIFT. It also reduces educational costs long term because of the early education benefits,” the freelance journalist wrote.
Surprisingly, through St-Esprit’s frustrated signature, she found solidarity in the email responses she’s received.
“I work with a lot of clients, so I thought maybe I should delete it,” St-Esprit told Today.com. “Then people started to reply to it, writing: ‘Side note: I love this.’ ‘Side note: Oh my gosh, this.'”
Obviously, there’s something a little wonky with America’s way of handling childcare. It’s especially noticeable in comparison with other industrialized countries that have found a way to not only offer extended paid parental leave but also provide subsidized childcare for working parents.
Technology is constantly changing and teens are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to the newest tech on the block. Many parents are asking their children how apps work or using their teens as in-home tech support for anything technology related, so it’s not a surprise when parents are two steps behind in warning their children about a problematic app or unsafe trend.
Think about being a teen in the late 90s and our not-so-smart greeting of “ASL” (Age, Sex, Location) for AOL chatrooms full of strangers that used to offer to pick us up for parties. Most of our parents didn’t know how to get past the Ask Jeeves screen, let alone navigate to an AOL chatroom to see who we were talking to. In many ways, teens today are doing the exact same thing but with a faster internet connection, more platforms and high-definition cameras. But now, we’re the parents trying to Ask Jeeves what Omegle is.
I’ll give you a hint: Jeeves doesn’t know, but this cyber security educator does, and she’s sending out massive smoke flares to get parents’ attention.
Tiana Sharifi, a cyber security educator, replied to a question asked on her TikTok page. The commenter asked if Sharifi thought Omegle was inappropriate and was given an in-depth answer about the dangers of the app for children.
“I educate parents but I also educate kids and teens, and what I will tell you is that when I go into these presentations, from grade six and upwards, they’ve all heard about Omegle,” Sharifi says. “When I say, ‘Have you heard of Omegle?’ everybody’s hands go up. But when I ask parents in parent nights, you get maybe two or three hands go up. This is not a safe platform.”
Omegle is a video platform that essentially allows you to video chat with strangers for a few minutes at a time. Sharifi explains it as webcam chat roulette where the only safeguard is a box that you click saying you’re 18. No math required to try to guess the correct birth year, just a box to check. There are no moderators and you can’t choose the rooms you get dropped into, so kids can and do get paired with adults, and not always safe adults.
“If you want to do an experiment, you can go on Omegle yourself and you will see within five seconds of being on the platform, there will be a lot of inappropriate nakedness,” Sharifi reveals.
Replying to @eveybevy70 #parenting #parentingtips #onlinesafety #childsafety
But if you think kids being dropped into random rooms with anonymous strangers is the worst part, Sharifi drops a bomb that most parents aren’t ready to hear.
“The most alarming part is that the kids are being recorded without their knowledge,” the educator shares.
Since the platform is live-streamed, the kids believe the interaction is completely temporary, unaware that the adult could be filming them. If a child decides to engage with the naked individual in any way, including in a way that’s inappropriate, these screen-recorded interactions are then uploaded to inappropriate adult entertainment sites, according to Sharifi. But there’s no extortion or blackmail, so neither the kids nor parents ever find out their children are on these sites that are specifically frequented by people looking for sexual content involving minors.
Teens aren’t aware of the recordings and their parents aren’t aware of the sites, so Sharifi bringing this to light on a public platform that teens and parents both frequent could make a positive impact.
Childrearing is always a touchy topic, and with the rise of newer parenting techniques like gentle parenting and free-range parenting, people get passionate about their techniques. To be fair, parenting is a very personal journey and every parent out there will parent differently than the next. In fact, even within the same household, each child is parented differently when they have the same exact parents.
This is because as parents we are constantly learning what works and what doesn’t. We’re also learning that each child has a different personality and needs a different approach. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting, but there are some evidence-based practices that have been proven to work well as a guide for your personal style.
When I first started having children a little over 20 years ago, my family had a lot of opinions about my parenting style because there was no “punishment” for unwanted behaviors. It seemed like a foreign concept back then, and it still feels foreign now to some people. But the truth is, my children have never experienced punishment at my hand.
When my children were younger, I had grown accustomed to defending the way I parented them, and while it was a source of frustration, it didn’t change the way I approached the task. I had an advantage that not every parent has when raising children–I was in college for my bachelor’s degree in child development and family relations when I was raising my first child, and I graduated when my second was six months old. I essentially had an inside scoop on how kids’ brains worked and the best approach to interact with them.
This is the reason I steered away from punishment and focused instead on natural and logical consequences. I view punishment as something unrelated to the behavior. Sometimes the punishment can be a child being grounded because they failed a test, or time-out for swearing. Obviously, there are more severe punishments as well, like corporal punishment or the newer trend of public humiliation via social media. (For instance, recently a mom posted a video to TikTok showing her running over her young child’s television because he was misbehaving in school.)
Natural consequences always happen on their own without much parental intervention, while logical consequences are typically enforced by the parent. Natural consequences are usually predictable, and as long as your kid is in no immediate danger, then it’s usually safe to let them play out.
Here’s an example: When my daughter was 4 or 5 years old, she was playing outside with some friends and had taken her shoes off in front of our backyard swing set and left them there. This was a Saturday and she had P.E. on Tuesday. I gave her multiple reminders to pick up her shoes along with the warning that her shoes would be gross if she left them outside.
She continued to live her best life going to dance, school and having playdates all while she ignored my advice to pick up her shoes. When P.E. day rolled around, she happily ran outside to grab her tennis shoes and promptly screamed and ran back into the house. Her shoes were filled with slugs and spider webs, so she was unable to wear them to school and had to go in jelly shoes. This was a natural consequence for the action and not a punishment.
But what is a logical consequence? I’ve got an example of that too, and yes, these are all real things that have taken place, though this one isn’t nearly as dramatic. My youngest is supposed to be in bed by 8 PM and lights out by 8:30 every evening, but he likes to get really silly before bedtime and wants to find ways to play more before going to bed. We inform him that all of the extra play is taking away from his television time in his room because no matter what, the television goes off at 8:30. If he wastes his “TV time,” it’s upsetting, but it’s not a punishment.
I have found that allowing for natural and logical consequences has given my children the ability to think critically for themselves in difficult situations. One of my four kids is now an adult and two of them are teens, and they information seek through me or Google when making certain decisions for themselves. I’ve never shielded them from safe natural and logical consequences even when they were painful to watch, like failing a grade or gossiping behind a good friend’s back.
Have I made mistakes as a parent? Absolutely. I’m not perfect and neither are my children, but from an early age, they saw me as someone to help guide them as they made their own choices. This aided them in achieving confidence in their decision-making abilities.
Every parenting style isn’t for every parent or every child. This is what has worked for me, but people should do what works best for their families to raise well-rounded and kind future adults.
No matter how long you’ve skied or snowboarded or how much of an expert you are, there’s one nemesis on the mountain that poses an underappreciated threat—the tree well.
People may think the main danger of skiing through trees is the risk of running into one. But falling into a tree well is a less obvious, but still potentially deadly risk due to the possibility of snow immersion suffocation (SIS). Essentially, the area around the base of a tree creates snow conditions that are quite different than those out in the open. Air pockets in the snow combined with water vapor rising from the tree base turns the snow into a quicksand-like texture that is nearly impossible to escape from—the more you struggle, the deeper in you fall. Skiers and snowboarders die every year from SIS due to falling into tree wells and not being found in time.
That could easily have been snowboarder Ian Steger’s fate in March 2023 if not for the eagle eye and quick thinking of backcountry skier Francis Zuber.
Zuber had just begun a backcountry ski run with a buddy on Mount Baker in Washington State when a flash of red caught the corner of his eye. Zuber’s GoPro footage shows him stopping and turning to see a colorful snowboard upside-down next to a tree.
“I knew there was somebody attached to it, and obviously they were still alive,” Zuber told Vancouver’s City News. “I shout out to the guy…he can’t hear me, he’s five and a half to six feet into the snow at that point.” Zuber knew he had to work fast.
As the video shows him struggling to make his way back toward the tree through the deep snow, we can hear him muttering expletives to himself and calling out to the snowboarder. At first, we can’t see how Steger is positioned, but as Zuber gets closer and starts digging, it becomes clear that the snowboarder is completely upside-down, with his face buried deep in the snow.
Watch the harrowing GoPro footage Zuber shared on YouTube:
[Warning: This video contains strong language.]
Zuber told the CBC that they estimated Steger had been buried between five and seven minutes, “probably at either a third or just the halfway point of his possible survival time in there,” when he found him. Zuber said Steger hadn’t been snowboarding alone—he was with a group of three other riders who were carrying safety equipment including shovels, beacons and two-way radios—but as we could see in Zuber’s GoPro, getting back up a mountain when you realize someone in your group isn’t behind you anymore is no small or quick task.
Steger and Zuber have since become friends since the March 3 rescue and have even gone skiing together on Mount Baker.
Steger told the CBC he just wants to “enjoy being alive.” Indeed, after a close-call experience like that, every moment you have would feel like a gift.
Many of us have sent a thank you to that one special teacher who really made an impact during our school days. Those standout heroes who taught us how to shine, grow beyond our limitations, and see the beauty of our potential.
However, Minnesota high school senior Minna Yang has gone above and beyond, sending literally hundreds of notes of appreciation to every single one of her teachers. Yes. Every. Single. One.
Yang began this sweet gesture as a shy elementary student and never stopped. Not only did she add new teachers to the list, she continued writing to teachers from her previous years, so the list would grow exponentially. By her senior year, she had 74 teachers and staffers in total who would receive a note.
“It became a mission for her to leave a wake of positivity,” Sarah Wolfe, one of Yang’s teachers, told NBC News.
To respond in kind, Yang’s teachers banded together on their own mission. The day before her high school graduation, a small crowd of her former educators gathered to celebrate Yang’s generosity and offer their own words of appreciation.
“I take your note out every time I feel like I can’t do it, and you help me do it,” one teacher said.
Teaching, as we well know, isn’t an easy job. And in some ways—especially monetarily—it’s a thankless one. Not getting paid enough while taking on more and more responsibilities has caused many teachers to quit the job they love, after all.
But still, people continue to take it on as a vocation because of an inner drive to help and nurture young people and help them become the best version of themselves. I imagine getting a note does indeed help them remember why they chose the career in the first place. They deserve so much more, yes, but, as we can see from the exchange below, knowing they made a difference in their students’ lives is priceless.
Watch:
Yang’s teachers weren’t the only ones moved by her generosity. Several folks commended her attitude in the comments section.
“What’s amazingly beautiful is that every teacher seems to have saved the notes she sent them. What a caring human being, one that touched a lot of adults in her life. That is priceless and doesn’t happen often.”
“She is an upstanding human being who recognizes and respects her teachers who molded her as a person and helped her grow. She is an inspiration to many and will no doubt succeed in life because of her character and the fact that she values the relationships with those who helped her along her journey.”
“We need more people like her in the world, especially in this day and age. God bless you Minna in all you do.“
Yang might be the student here. But she’s giving a great lesson on kindness that we can all learn from.
Even with a literal ray of sunshine like Drew Barrymore, lightning has to strike once in a while. Especially when it comes to words being twisted by the media.
After the interview came out, certain news outlets extrapolated a statement by Barrymore to create salacious headlines, presumably for clicks, that claimed the “50 First Dates” star “admitted” that she “wished her mom was dead.”
Barrymore, who has already had more than her fair share of exploitation by the media, was simply not having it.
In a heated Instagram post, Barrymore held no punches as she was quick to remind the tabloids that the tumultuous details of her childhood have been a source of news fodder. Then she proceeded to tear them a new one.
“To all you tabloids out there, you have been fucking with my life since I was 13 years old. I have never said that I wish my mother was dead. How dare you put those words in my mouth!”
What Barrymore actually said was that she didn’t have the “luxury” that many other previous child actors who went through similar tumultuous childhoods had—of being able to cleanly process that trauma after a parent had passed. Instead, she has to process while maintaining a relationship with her mother, who is still alive.
Her words were: “All their moms are gone, and my mom’s not. And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t have that luxury.’ But I cannot wait. I don’t want to live in a state where I wish someone to be gone sooner than they’re meant to be so I can grow. I actually want her to be happy and thrive and be healthy. But I have to fucking grow in spite of her being on this planet.”
Knowing this, her anger certainly seems justified. It’s clear that Barrymore in no way meant that she was “excited” to see her mother die.
“I have been vulnerable and tried to figure out a very difficult, painful relationship while admitting it is difficult to do while a parent is alive,” she said in the Instagram video. “Don’t twist my words around or ever say that I wish my mother was dead. I have never said that. I never would.”
It’s no secret that humans are quicker to pay attention to stimuli that is negative, and news sources vying for said attention often use that to their advantage with eye-catching, emotion-inducing headlines. And look, no one knows the importance of compelling headlines like the writers at Upworthy—without them, readers will simply keep scrolling, and valuable stories won’t get read.
However, intriguing a potential reader to engage with a story we find worth sharing and falsifying information for the sake of clicks are two completely different things. And in this case, it not only feeds off of someone’s trauma, it can damage their character in the process.
Luckily, Barrymore handled the situation like a champ and was quick to get support after sending her video—both from fans and fellow celebs alike.
Jennifer Garner, a long-time friend of Barrymore, wrote, “You’re brave and real and I adore you xxx”
“Yes, let them have it!” Jennifer Hewitt chimed in.
Model and host Padma Laksmi also wrote, “Ugh. So sorry. We all knew what you meant. Thank you for your vulnerability always ❤️”
It’s great that Barrymore had the fortitude to respond the way she did. But in all reality, she shouldn’t have to respond to something like this in the first place.
However, we rarely get a glimpse of what happens after those feel-good stories take place. It’s not often that we get to witness firsthand the lasting impact made from one good deed. That’s what makes this story so special.
Xavier Dimples was only 2 years old when his house caught fire, leaving him trapped inside. Without a firefighter named Jeff Ohs bravely entering the burning building to pull the toddler out of the wreckage and resuscitating him, Dimples would have perished.
Twenty-three years after the incident, Dimples was able to reunite with Ohs, introducing him to his son who was the exact same age as Dimples when Ohs rescued him.
“After I was resuscitated I was in a coma for a month after that. I could never repay [Ohs] for giving me a chance at life, I can only live a great life for him & my son. I owe him my life,” Dimples wrote on Twitter, along with a side-by-side photo showing him as a toddler in the firefighter’s arms and a picture of Ohs holding his two-year-old.
When I was 2 years old my house caught on fire & I was trapped inside, I ended up dying that day & this firefighter, Jeff Ohs, saved me from that building & brought my back to life. Now 23 years later he is holding my 2 year old son. I literally wouldn’t be here without him pic.twitter.com/FLxmKG19DF
The moment was equally profound for Ohs. Soon after Dimples published this post, Ohs replied. “Dude!!!! You are a fighter through and through. And honestly you scared the sh*t out of me that day. So so blessed for the outcome. Love you guys.”
“I thank God that you lived to tell your story. I thank God for my firefighter brother Jeff! Sometimes firefighters/medics don’t always know the outcome of the ppl they rescue once they’re delivered to the hospital. But hearing [your] story brings tears to my eyes!” one person wrote.
“The look on her face in the older picture? He’s definitely determined not to let you go down. I’m so happy that he got you back!” added another.
“I worked with Jeff and I know his story well. You make our jobs worth everything we go through. Thank you for sharing,” a former coworker of Ohs commented.
Since that fateful day a little over two decades ago, Dimples and Ohs have been friends. Dimples later quipped that he could pull up to Ohs’ house right now if he wanted. That kind of closure is rare. Firefighters risk their lives for complete strangers out of a genuine desire to help, but they don’t often get to see how their efforts truly paid off. This must have been such a rewarding experience for Ohs.
We never really know where any of our good deeds may lead. But knowing the results isn’t what drives people to commit brave acts. It’s that impulse we all have to help one another and the inner knowing that somehow we are inexplicably connected. The impulse is louder for some than others, or more or less frequent, but answering it can lead to amazing things.
When people decide to get married, the primary focus in the relationship often becomes the wedding. There are so many details to think about—the venue, the guest list, the food, the wedding party, the dress and tux…it’s practically a full-time job, especially if you’re going big.
Planning a wedding can be so time-consuming that a lot of couples neglect to prepare for the more important thing—their actual marriage. Most people understand that marriage is a long-term commitment, but many people go into it without a solid understanding of what that commitment entails and without preparing their relationship for long-term success.
That’s the impetus behind Jimmy Knowles’ (aka “Jimmy on Relationships”) viral take on pre-marital counseling. Knowles’ video titled “The Premarital Counseling I Wish I Had YEARS Ago” has been viewed over a million times on Facebook, and judging by the comments, he nailed what every soon-to-be-married couple needs to hear.
In the video, a couple is visiting with a counselor for premarital counseling. All three characters are played by Knowles himself, which is quite entertaining, but his counseling advice is spot on.
After asking the couple if they’re excited about their wedding, the counselor says, “Yeah, it’s meaningless. Your wedding—it has nothing to do with the success of your relationship. I’m not going to say it’s a waste of $20,000, unless of course you get divorced a few years later, which 50% of people do. So your marriage is practically a coin flip.”
That may sound cynical and pessimistic, but Jimmy the Counselor is anything but. His point is that people spent all this time and energy planning their wedding and almost no time preparing their relationship to last long-term. Then he goes into all kinds of reasons why relationships fail, from people not having healthy relationship models to toxic and problematic behaviors that they themselves might not even be aware of.
As he lays all of this out for the couple, they appear to be taken aback. And when he asks them what they’re going to do that’s different from people who end up divorced or in unfulfilling, unhealthy marriages, they respond that what’s different about them is that they’re “in love.”
“Wrong,” Jimmy responds. “Everyone’s in love on their wedding day. Do you know why 50% of those marriages fail? Because they didn’t know what love required of them—service, selflessness, sacrifice. Not one-sided. Mutual.”
“They didn’t have a plan to get things right,” he adds. “And they didn’t have a plan for what to do when things got hard and stressful, which they always do eventually.”
Counselor Jimmy (who is not a real counselor, for the record) pulls no punches, but he delivers the reality of marriage in a way that both highlights what it requires and also what’s really beautiful about it.
In less than 10 minutes, he manages to entertain while also dropping a crapton of solid truth and advice that would help anyone who is planning on getting married—or even people who are already married—strengthen their relationship.
Watch:
People in the comments expressed their appreciation for the free marital counseling.
“As a child of divorce and someone who just celebrated our 20th anniversary, I wholeheartedly agree with every single word,” shared one commenter. “Fantastic wisdom here. I can’t say we’ve never hurt each other in conflict, but we have the commitment and care to put in the work and grow through what we’re going through.”
“This is really good advice,” shared another. “We got married at 17, pregnant, no money with broken childhoods. I thought it was love that got us through all our traumas. But listening to this guy, I realize because we love each other, the talking, the intimacy, the respect and care we gave came naturally. Even now, after over 40 years together, we try not to take it for granted, we still show affection and support.”
“This is how my marriage survived and thrived for 25 years, 1 week, and 6 days,” shared another. “The day my husband passed away at age 49. A marriage really does take work, but it’s so worth it and knowing it’s a shared experience of love…”
Scientific discoveries and technological advancements have always been a double-edged sword. Nuclear fission gave us a powerful source of clean energy and as well as the most destructive weapons humanity has ever seen. The internet gave us unparalleled access to the entire library of human knowledge and also unparalleled exploitation and porn. Social media has connected people around the world in ways previous generations barely dreamed of and also resulted in a toxic online culture that threatens to shred the fabric of society.
Now, after several dozen movies imagining the best and worst-case scenarios, we’re at that fork in the road with Artificial Intelligence. The sudden leap in AI tech hitting the mainstream has us all wondering what comes next. But for all the AI fear and uncertainty, there are some pretty incredible, humanity-boosting ways it is being used that may signal some hope for that future.
For instance, AI is allowing facial expressions to control computers. Case in point: a project inspired by quadriplegic video game streamer Lance Carr, whose rare form of muscular dystrophy only allows him to control his face and head movements. Carr had been using a head-tracking mouse (an expensive piece of accessibility equipment controlled by head movement) for gaming, but after his house caught fire during a livestream on Twitch in 2021, he lost everything.
Carr got connected with some folks at Google to co-design Project Gameface, a fittingly-named tool that allows users to use facial movements as game controls. Linking several different AI models together, the project uses a mesh of 468 points on your face and converts them into telemetry to make mouse movements and clicks. For instance, raising your eyebrows can make the mouse drag or click and opening your mouth can move the cursor.
The best part is that since the project is open source and only requires a webcam for input, it will be widely accessible to people who want or need to use it. And for those who don’t have full use of their limbs, it may be a game-changer as it has been for Carr.
“Muscular dystrophy takes, and this actually added an ability,” he said. “So it’s the first time I’ve gained something in a physical sense.” He shared that the technology is so precise that he’s able to write his name in cursive using only his face through a webcam.
Watch:
Though Google says it’s still in development, they have made it available for preview through GitHub for people who want to give it a spin and help contribute to its improvement.
The potential dangers of AI may be making people nervous, but let’s be sure not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. In the hands of people who are focused on helping humanity progress wisely and responsibly, AI can be a powerful, life-changing tool that makes people’s lives better.
As Lance Carr said, “My hope is to definitely give this technology to everybody who could use it,” the gamer added. “I just want to make a lot of people’s lives better and easier.”
Here’s to those using ever-advancing technology for good.
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