NEW RESOURCES

Now available: an online database of maternity leave policies. “Fairygodboss, an online community where women share stories and reviews about current and former employers, has a crowdsourced database of maternity leave policies for about 700 companies.”

To be released next week: a database of Chicago police misconduct records. “The Chicago Police Database, named the Citizens Police Data Project, which goes live on November 10, was created as part of a joint project with the Invisible Institute, a journalistic production company. It includes 54,581 complaints filed against 8,337 officers, including every allegation of police misconduct within the Chicago Police Department filed between March 2011 and March 2015.” Eventually the database may include misconduct accusations going back to 1967.

The state of Missouri has a new online crime report. “The online Crime in Missouri Report is a new way the state patrol is making crime statistics more easily searchable and sortable. Stats are arranged by type, such as motor vehicle theft, arson, burglary, or murder, for example.”

The Library of Congress has a new blog devoted to the LOC’s cartography collection. “Today we welcome the newest member of the Library’s blog family. World’s Revealed: Geography & Maps at the Library of Congress will highlight cartographic objects from the Library’s collections that ‘sometimes go beyond what usually ends up in exhibits and in textbooks and bring to the forefront uncataloged objects that have never before been placed online.’ The Library’s Geography and Map Division contains more than 6 million maps in addition to a wide array of atlases, globes, raised relief models, archives, a vast collection of digital data and a GIS research center. The blog will explore the past, present, and future of maps and mapping, including sharing latest finds and new acquisitions.”

TWEAKS & UPDATES

Google Street View has gone to New Zealand. “From the lush waterfalls of the Milford Track to the alpine peaks of the Kepler Track, you can now explore some of the most stunning parts of New Zealand’s wilderness with the launch of seven of the world-renowned ‘Great Walks’ on Google Street View. Known for the beauty of their remote multi-day treks, the Great Walks are a favourite destination for hikers around the world, and are now available in 360-degree panoramic imagery right from your smartphone or computer, with Google Maps.”

Chromecast now supports Sling TV. “While Chromecast today supports dozen of apps, including Netflix, Hulu, Google Play Movies, HBO NOW, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, and many more, Sling TV provides a way to watch live and on-demand television for the reduced price of $20 per month. With Sling’s entry-level package, you can access a core bundle of channels such as TBS, TNT, ESPN, Adult Swim, HGTV, A&E, History and more – essentially, many of the channels you may miss when you ditch your cable TV or satellite subscription.”

USEFUL STUFF

Noupe: How to create images for social media using Pablo. Pablo, as you might remember, is the image-creation tool from Buffer.

For those of you saying that browser development is dead: Hongkiat comes up with TEN features all browsers should have. And Preethi Ranjit nails it; these would all be good features. Vertical tabs and tab restriction would make my life a lot easier.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

From the South China Morning Post: The Rise and Rise of the Asia Art Archive. “The Asia Art Archive of today is a lot more than just a few rows of bookshelves. Last year, it took a mobile library of art books around Myanmar and held talks and archiving workshops to a nation which was shut off from the rest of the world for so long. In India, it is compiling a bibliography of art writing from South Asia from the late 19th century to 1990 in 13 languages. It also has a fast-growing digital library, of which the personal archive of the late, local artist Ha Bik-chuen is its most ambitious project to date. ”

This morning I stumbled on the blog for the Lloyd’s Register Digitization Project. Lloyd’s register has to do with ships and shipping; as it has both modern and historical components I will refer you to Wikipedia for a full overview. Anyway, the blog post I linked to above discusses the first project, how the different records are stored, and how the records are being tracked and organized. An interesting peek into what looks like a huge project.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Walt Mossberg says Google should be making its own hardware. “Yes, I know that Google briefly owned, and then sold, an entire phone manufacturer, Motorola. Yes, I know that Google has dabbled in hardware with products like the Chromecast and the Chromebook Pixel, and had to kill another internal hardware venture, a home media player called the Q. But it’s perfectly possible for a company with Google’s clout and resources to hire more hardware engineers and designers, create unique devices, and outsource its manufacturing.” Good morning, Internet…

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