NEW RESOURCES

The British Library has launched its Magna Charta archive.

Yahoo has launched a new digital magazine: Yahoo Politics.

Georgia State University has launched new online exhibits. “The current exhibit topics include the history of radio broadcasting in Georgia, history of Atlanta women’s organizations, and grass roots activism. Additional exhibits will be added periodically in the future.”

Pixar has made its rendering engine, Renderman free (as in beer). “To download Renderman, Pixar requires you to register for a forum account and provide a valid e-mail address. Once that’s done, you are given an installation package which in turn downloads the actual Renderman components appropriate for your operating system and 3D package.” Note this is for non-commercial use only. Do you wanna render a snowman?

There’s a new pay-to-view video service in town: Vessel. “The videomakers who plan to debut content on Vessel include GloZell Green, MinutePhysics, FailArmy, Brittani Louise Taylor, Shane Dawson and dozens more. Vessel also has exclusive content, such as a reality show about romantic relationships starring Alec Baldwin.”

USEFUL STUFF

From PC World (Warning! PC World!): 5 Google Drive Tricks. I would like a trick to get the Google Drive index page the way it used to be. The new one is awful.

Want to know if your GMail is being tracked (by marketing companies and so forth)? There’s a Chrome extension for that. “Ugly Email is a free Chrome browser extension that works on the Gmail website, and it serves one purpose: To let you know when an email is being tracked before you open it.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Hey! More records from FamilySearch. “Notable collection updates include 2,435,483 indexed records from the Canada Census, 1911 collection; 2,069,202 indexed records from the Australia, Queensland Cemetery Records, 1802–1990 collection; and 310,900 images from the Russia, Tula Poll Tax Census (Revision Lists), 1758–1895 collection.”

Wandering down memory lane? Facebook has a new ‘on this day’ feature.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The University of Rochester Libraries have joined HathiTrust.

Search engine Blekko, about which I have written a few times has been either fully or partially acquired by IBM. In any case, it’s no longer available.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

While I was checking my traps, I stumbled across a paper by James Gips, Muhan Zhang, and Deirdre Anderson of Boston College: Towards a Google Glass Based Head Control Communication System for People with Disabilities (PDF file, free). It’s a relatively short paper that outlines two Glass-based systems that allow people to communicate via head movement. If you, like me, are interested in the medical/industrial capabilities of Glass, it’s well worth a read. Good morning, Internet…

I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!