NEW RESOURCES

The Birmingham Hippodrome – a theater in the UK – has created a digital archive. “The archive website … will include more than 1,000 items – from programmes, to photographs, tickets, building plans and oral histories from staff, performers and audiences. There is also a database of every show which has graced the stage since 1899 including all the acts and performers.”

Upcoming.org has repopulated its event site with events from 2003-2013. “This is a historical archive of more than 7 million events saved from Upcoming’s first ten years. The vast majority of events were saved, and the original URLs for nearly all of them are active again — along with the original venue, watchlist, and comment metadata.”

A new Web site is designed to make research and analysis of rap lyrics easier. “Actual Fact is ‘an exhibition of data visualization and critical writing produced with data extracted from rap lyrics.’ It employs the ‘Hiphop Word Count’ database, which creator and Lab founder Tahrir Hemphill describes in a video profile as ‘an online searchable database that analyzes the language in hip-hop and looks at hip-hop as a cultural indicator.’ It contains data from the lyrics of more than 100,000 hip-hop songs dating back to 1979.” I had trouble getting the site to load but I’m on Chromium, which can be wonky sometimes…

Found over on Reddit: a ridiculous archive of Star Wars wallpapers. 500 of ’em, very stylish.

USEFUL STUFF

NICE! The DPLA and PBS Learning Media are teaming up. “Within PBS LearningMedia, educators will be able to access, save, and combine DPLA’s education resources with more than 100,000 videos, images, interactives, lesson plans and articles drawn from critically acclaimed PBS programs such as Frontline and American Experience and from expert content contributors like NASA. Teachers also have the option of navigating within the DPLA resources; from our collection page, educators can explore by core subject areas, such as US history, literature, arts, and science and technology, as well as themes like migration and labor history and groups including African Americans and women.”

There are several options! (Also, the pictures in this article are gorgeous.) How to Shoot Through Glass Without Unwanted Reflections. “My name is Justin Tierney, and I’m a time-lapse photographer based in Japan. The opening section of my latest time-lapse project features nocturnal Japanese cityscapes. All the shots were captured from high hotel windows or observation towers around Tokyo. In this short article I share how I was able to create these shots without unwanted window reflections.”

Want to have some fun with Instagram and VR? Here ya go. “Tour your own photos in the Louvre museum or an art gallery. With Instamuseum you’ll create your own 3D gallery in just minutes. You can share it with your friends and explore it in VR!”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

REALLY interesting: the government of Utah wants you to use your Amazon Echo to help you with your driving knowledge (PRESS RELEASE). “The Department of Public Safety and the Department of Technology Services announced the introduction of a new Amazon Echo driver license practice exam. The added convenience of the voice-activated practice exam allows new drivers to review the rules of the road in the comfort of their homes through Amazon’s voice-controlled speaker and digital assistant, Alexa.”

Google Cars are going toot toot, hey, beep beep. “Google’s self-driving cars are getting some attitude. Company engineers have been working on teaching their autonomous vehicles the subtle – and often obnoxious – art of honking, according to Google’s May self-driving car report.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Live in London? Careful what you say on social media. “Two-and-a-half thousand Londoners have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly sending ‘offensive’ messages via social media, statistics have revealed. The full number of arrests made by the Metropolitan Police for alleged breaches of Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 increased by 37 per cent over the last five years.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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