NEW RESOURCES

In development: a database of Living Buddhas. It’s to stop frauds from rooking people. “Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a Living Buddha is reincarnated in a child. The selection procedure is strict and lengthy, and nearly all Living Buddhas are from the Tibetan ethnic group.” Note: the database is in development by China, and the relationship between China and Tibet has not been free of acrimony. At least one Buddhist perspective considers this database an attempt on the part of China to co-opt Buddhist institutions. I was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and the idea of disparaging any religion really bothers me. So: the story is interesting, but my understanding of the issues surrounding the story is even more incomplete than usual, and I do not mean to cause offense to Buddhists or anybody else by including it in ResearchBuzz.

More resources from Tibet: China has set up a database of ancient Tibetan medical documents. “China’s largest database for ancient Tibetan medicine books has been set up in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, according to the provincial Tibetan medicine research institute.”

The government of Azerbaijan has has set up a central resource for pricing on agricultural products. The database has information on almost 450 kinds of fruits and vegetables.

TWEAKS & UPDATES

Scribd is teaming up with music publisher Hal Leonard, with a new offering of sheet music.

Canadian football fans, the CFL is doing a serious upgrade to its online stat data. “Until three days ago, for instance, you couldn’t go to the CFL website and find out how many games Peter Dyakowski played in 2012. That is astounding in this day and age. Thankfully for fans of the three-down game — not to mention sports reporters who don’t mind using interesting facts every once in a while — that is all about to change.”

Google is going to make it easier to find Drive files. Which is great, because I have loathed the new Drive ever since it was rolled out. “Regardless of what device your files came from, you can search for a file type on Android, iOS or the web. You can also perform the advanced searched from the search box, access recent files or search Drive from your iOS home screen with 3D Touch. You can also search using the iOS search box without opening the app.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The pile-on for Yahoo continues, with Katie Couric’s deal currently in the spotlight. A Washington Post article kind of reads that everyone thought it was a good idea at the time. I don’t remember it that way, so I went and looked at what I thought of it.

The EU is considering imposing a “snippet tax” on Google for it to display quotes from news stories. Dear EU: This did not work for Spain and it did not work for Germany. It will not work for you.

Is Google going to be Google if it enters China again? Or might it be… Pengji? “A previously unheralded shell company that Google Inc registered in Shanghai a year ago could become a key component in the United States search engine’s possible reboot in China. The company, Pengji, is registered in a high-rise office building in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, a testing ground for the central government to try out economic reforms.” Good morning, Internet…

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