Somebody on Twitter mentioned the Scraping for Journalists eBook, about which I had not heard. Did I buy it? You bet your elbow I did. The sample looked GREAT.
The good news? The entire completed works of Leo Tolstoy are now available in a digital archive! The bad news? They’re in Russian! (I suppose that’s only bad news if you don’t speak Russian.)
Ooo ooo oo! I had no idea the New York Public Library had a digital collection of historical automobile catalogs! LOVE.
Art Gallery of Algoma (Canada) has launched an online database.
Privacy-oriented search engine Zeekly has officially launched (Press release): “Zeekly.com is a worldwide search engine that protects privacy. The site does not store metadata on it’s users, and the site is running on 2048-bit SSL encryption. By not storing metadata, there’s “nothing for the government to get” because historical data on Zeekly users doesn’t exist, and by using high grade SSL encryption, Zeekly has assured that your internet provider and/or cell phone company isn’t recording your metadata, either because communication between your computer/phone/tablet and Zeekly’s servers is encrypted (and it was disclosed by Edward Snowden that all major cell phone providers are under court order to give their metadata to the U.S. government, also).”
Hmmm. A computer program that uses Twitter to map public sentiment. It’s scary, but I read this paragraph — “The system can analyse up to 2,000 tweets a second to extract from each a direct expression of one of eight basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, shame and confusion.” — and thought, is 2,000 a second going to be enough… ?
Did you know you could forward spam text messages to report them? I didn’t. Thanks Lifehacker!
Make some noise! Check out these 12 free and open source music making programs.
The EPA has launched a new mapping tool for environmental impact statements. “The user can click on a state in the map and is provided with comment letters submitted by the EPA on Environmental Impact Statements within the last 60 days. The tool also provides users with the information they need to identify projects with open comment periods, including how to submit comments.”
ABC (of Australia, not the US) will be running an experimental Twitter bot on election night for providing election updates and results.
ArnoldIT has the skinny on a new open source search tool, Searchkick.
Weekend fun from Amit Agarwal: How to print a YouTube video. It appears to require videos be a certain length, however. I tried to print a 30-second video and kept getting an error message.
Here is your weird (not un-useful, not bad, not wrong to have done, just weird) database of the day: there is now available a database cataloging the chemical compounds found in human urine. “In the study, which took seven years to complete, the researchers found that at least 3,079 compounds can be detected in urine. Seventy-two of these compounds are made by bacteria, while 1,453 come from the body itself. Another 2,282 come from diet, drugs, cosmetics or environmental exposure (some compounds belong to more than one group).” Pee is complicated! Good morning, Internet…
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