NEW RESOURCES

In development (and I mean really in development – no launch until 2018) – a Japanese database of occupation information. “Japan’s labor ministry plans to launch the one-stop website as early as 2018, modeling it after O-NET, a comprehensive occupational database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor since 2003.”

What an interesting idea: a browser extension that aims to give gender balance to image searches. “Re-Search is an attempt to broaden the image of who can be an engineer. With the help of a clever technological solution, we can at least create a more inspiring and gender-balanced image of the engineering profession, and do the same thing for 60 other jobs. Re-Search is a browser extension that contains a list of professions where the image search results are dominated by either men or women. When the user does an image search for a profession which is included on the list, Re-Search does a modified search which aims to find images of the underrepresented sex.”

Smith College has created a digital archive of its alumni publication. “Members of the first classes to receive the Smith Alumnae Quarterly in 1909 would hardly recognize the world that is represented in the magazine today. Those women—by and large the privileged daughters of America’s elite—were among the first wave of women to receive a higher education. They still didn’t have the vote, though, and they probably could not imagine a Smith College as diverse in age, class, race and country of origin as is represented in the magazine today. It’s a shame they can’t come visit our world. But we can easily visit theirs now that every issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly—from 1909 to the one you’re reading right now—is available via digital link.”

From the University of Hawaii: Pan-STARRS releases largest digital sky survey to the world. “The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) project at the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy is publicly releasing the world’s largest digital sky survey today, via the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland…. The four years of data comprise 3 billion separate sources, including stars, galaxies and various other objects. The immense collection contains 2 petabytes of data, which is equivalent to one billion selfies or one hundred times the total content of Wikipedia.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

From the Internet Archive: Would Like to Archive Government Web Services, not just Web Sites– Please help. “Archiving .gov and .mil websites is going on now, with lots of help—but what if we could archive full government web services? This would mean keeping interactive sites that include databases and forms, available for future use even if the original website changes or is removed.”

PC World: Google Drive offers sweet prepaid subscriptions for 100GB and 1TB users. “Subscribers to the 100GB and 1TB plans can now prepay for a full year of Google Drive for $19.99 and $99.99, respectively, effectively getting in two months for free. Previously the plans cost $1.99 a month and $9.99 a month with no option for paying up-front. The discounts do not apply to the higher 10TB, 20TB, and 30TB plans, and it’s unclear whether the new subscription options are available outside the U.S.”

First I was reading about audio issues with the Pixel… and now freezing issues? “In the last week my Pixel has been really quite bad, matching up with reports online that Pixel owners have been having their phone freeze, and you can’t do anything with it – and it takes up to 60 seconds before the phone starts working, very randomly. The only way to get out of it is to hard reset Pixel by pressing the power and volume down buttons at the same time, and holding them down for 10 seconds.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The Best Tools to Grab Screenshots in Windows. This is a bit of a shootout and includes both “not recommended” apps as well as useful comments (at least at this writing.)

It’s that time of year… from Hongkiat: 20+ Free Printable Calendars for 2017. “Just like beautiful 2016 calendar desings, we have once agian, put together a collection of creative, vivid, stylish and absolutely free printable calendars for 2017. You can easily download any of them, and print it for home use or work station.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New Jersey 101.5: NJ town uses Facebook Live to engage residents in local government. “[Brick] appears to be the first in New Jersey to take advantage of Facebook’s new ‘Live’ feature to broadcast town hall-style meetings, according to Mayor John Ducey. ‘I’m not aware of any other towns doing it,’ said Ducey. He tried the new social media tool this week and plans to hold monthly Town Hall Live meetings.”

Paste Magazine: 5 Ways Instagram Has Become More Like Facebook—For Good or Bad. “Originally, Instagram was just about sharing photos that were square shaped, which made it distinctive and somewhat nostalgic as the image size and applied filters made your photographs look more like Polaroids than a tradition image on the Internet. It was hip, it was cool and no one was ‘insta-famous’ yet. While it’s not that shocking to see Facebook turn Instagram into something more in line with its brand (it does own the company, after all) it’s sad and honestly a little scary to think about.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Harvard Business Review: How Physicians Can Keep Up with the Knowledge Explosion in Medicine. “Imagine an oncologist with more than a decade of practice experience is evaluating a lung cancer patient today. During her training years ago, there would have been a handful of therapy options to consider. Today there are dozens of additional options, in addition to hundreds of open clinical trials, each representing a potentially more effective treatment for the patient. Not only does she have to know about these new drugs and the active clinical trials, she also should be up-to-date on all of the published articles in this area so she can understand the science behind each therapy option in order to make the best decisions for her patient.” For once, I’m encouraging you to read the comments. It’s various, mostly polite arias in the key of “HEY! MEDICAL LIBRARIANS!” Good morning, Internet…

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