NEW RESOURCES

The government of Japan is going to create a database containing genetic research information about Japanese people. “AMED [Agency for Medical Research and Development] aims to establish a single database containing the results of research on the genetic information of Japanese people, and put that database on the internet.”

Old Dominion University has created an online archive about a historically African-American neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia. “For the last 18 months, a team of 20 worked on a project known as ‘Mapping Lamberts Point,’ in which undergraduate and graduate students interviewed residents who grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s about the neighborhood’s evolution. The team also collected stories from the early 20th century from the Norfolk Journal and Guide, a publication focusing on African-American news and issues.”

The Nova Scotia [Canada] Historical Newspapers Online Database has added two new Gaelic titles and one in what I think is Acadian French. “Old newspapers and magazines provide rich historical records, but when the ink fades and the paper turns to dust, the information is lost. Those records are preserved digitally by the Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers Online Database, in collaboration with local universities and libraries. Now, the list includes Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Écosse and two Gaelic publications — An Cuairtear Òg Gaelach and Am Bràighe.”

All of Donald Trump’s tweets have been collected and put into an online database. Over 16,000 of them. “Courtesy of a Georgetown grad and former Peace Corps volunteer who now works as a programmer, we now have a searchable archive of 16,000+ tweets from @realDonaldTrump since 2009.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Opera has launched a desktop version of its free VPN. “While most VPNs either require a subscription fee or installing additional software on your PC, Opera’s latest update to its stable desktop browser version adds VPN functionality for free and turning it on is as simple as clicking a button.”

Instagram is adding drafts.

Google Allo has officially launched. “The messaging app, which is available for Android and the iPhone, has similar features to most other messaging clients: stickers, emoji, the ability to draw on images like Snapchat and the choice of group or one-on-one chats. Messages are not encrypted end-to-end by default – unlike on WhatsApp, which it will compete with – but can be switched to an incognito mode to do so and set how long they exist before they’re deleted.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hey, this sounds pretty nifty: a Chrome extension which can identify landmarks in YouTube videos. “It’s easy to use. If you spot a landmark you don’t recognize, pause playback, click the Flico icon, then ‘Scan Landmarks’, and the add-on goes to work. We tried this with an image of Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, and within a few seconds Flico had given us the correct location, and the opening section of its Wikipedia page.”

For you Medium fans, from MakeUseOf: 7 Awesome Tools You Should Definitely Try If You Love Medium. “Some third-party tools are now appearing to make your Medium experience a good one. Here are a few of the best. Some others which looked promising inexplicably refused to work for me, but there were plenty of others ready to step into the void.”

Phone Radar has a pretty extensive overview of Google Trips.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

British Journalism Review: A Giant That May Eat Us. “Facebook would never say it set out to deliberately undermine the media industry. Yet it is, both through increasing domination of internet advertising revenue and control of a significant part of a critical distribution platform. It has created and defined an entirely new industry between media, communications and entertainment that we call “social media”, taking full advantage of the vast opportunity of unregulated business with a global audience. ” Good morning, Internet..

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