NEW RESOURCES

Over 170,000 photos from the Salt Lake Tribune have been digitized and put online. “President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade meanders around Salt Lake City, less than two months before his assassination. Marching bands galore stomp through downtown during the city’s now-discontinued Christmas parade. These are a few of the literal snapshots from four decades’ worth of The Salt Lake Tribune’s photo archives that have just been digitized by the Utah Division of State History and released to the public — 171,000 images taken by Salt Lake Tribune photographers from the 1930s through the 1960s.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The USDA has posted an announcement regarding the material missing from the USDA Web site. “Today, APHIS is posting the first batch of annual reports of research institutions and inspection reports for certain Federal research facilities that the Agency regulates under the Animal Welfare Act. The reports posted are part of a comprehensive review of the documents the Agency removed from its website in early February and are in the same redacted form as before.” And I guarantee you will be garchived ten seconds after they go up.

CNET: Snap finally releases a how to use Snapchat video . Oh, NOW you release it. After I’ve finally figured it out. “Lo and behold, on Friday, Snap released the user manual many bewildered Snapchatters (or their parents) have been asking for. It came in the form of a video, labeled ‘Snapchat Product Overview,’ in its ‘roadshow’ materials — the stuff it uses to convince potential investors to buy in.”

Neowin: Opera announces project Reborn, brings enhanced sidebar and new themes . “Opera has released a brand new interface for its browser, under a project named Reborn. The new UI was introduced in a developer build of the browser. The build allows developers and enthusiasts to preview the new look and test new features including new themes and an updated sidebar which will work with social services including Facebook Messenger.”

TechCrunch: Coursera’s new skill search could do for learning what Netflix did for TV. “Coursera has emerged as a formidable competitor in the online education space, racking up 24 million registered learners with access to 1,900 courses. But with that growth in volume comes new challenges. With so much content, it’s difficult for users to find the videos they need. Today, Coursera is formally announcing a new search tool enabling users to search directly for skills they want to learn and receive recommended content from the company.”

The Verge: Facebook just changed its mission, because the old one was broken. “Facebook used to repeat its mission statement so often that most tech reporters could recite it from memory: ‘To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.’ And it’s still the mission you see when you visit the company’s Facebook page. But in a remarkable letter published today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the severe shortcomings and blind spots that his company’s mission created. Going forward, he said, the company will consider what happens after it connects people — and try to manage those effects for the better.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 13 Unique Online Dictionaries for Every Situation. “No matter what your age, occupation, or education may be, you have likely used a dictionary more than once. The online options are plentiful for basic word lookups and definitions. But if you are in the market for something more specific or tailored to your needs, check out these 13 unique dictionaries.”

Now you can learn about story telling from Pixar — for free!. “Pixar Animation Studios has launched the first of six free online lessons covering the art of storytelling, led by Pete Docter, Mark Andrews, and other filmmakers from the renowned Disney-owned studio. The new series is available for free through online-education platform Khan Academy.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Microsoft may have delayed its regular patchfest, but Adobe didn’t. “Adobe released security updates on Tuesday for Adobe Flash Player for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Chrome OS, according to its latest Security Bulletin. The company released fixes as part of its regularly scheduled patch series for more than a dozen code execution vulnerabilities in its Flash Player.”

Ars Technica: Dad who live-streamed his son’s birth on Facebook loses in court. “A father who live-streamed his son’s birth on Facebook and proceeded to sue for copyright infringement several media outlets that used the clips has lost his case. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled yesterday that the lawsuit filed by Kali Kanongataa must be thrown out, after the American Broadcasting Company and other defendants filed motions arguing that their use of the clips was covered by ‘fair use.'”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Forbes: How Twitter’s New Censorship Tools Are The Pandora’s Box Moving Us Towards The End Of Free Speech. “Earlier this morning social media and the tech press lit up with reports of users across Twitter receiving half-day suspensions en masse as the platform abruptly rolled out its decade-overdue hate-speech filter to its platform. The company has refused to provide details on specifically how the new system works, but using a combination of behavioral and keyword indicators, the filter flags posts it deems to be violations of Twitter’s acceptable speech policy and issues users suspensions of half a day during which they cannot post new tweets and their existing tweets are visible only to followers. From the platform that once called itself ‘the free speech wing of the free speech party,’ these new tools mark an incredible turn of events for the company that just two years ago famously wrote Congress to say it would do everything in its power to uphold the right of alleged terrorists to post freely to its platform. What does Twitter’s new interest in hate speech tell us about the future of free speech online?”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

I love this article from Atlas Obscura: Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs. “In September 1885, a bunch of librarians spent four days holed up in scenic Lake George, just over 200 miles north of New York City. In the presence of such library-world luminaries as Melvil Dewey—the well-organized chap whose Dewey Decimal System keeps shelves orderly to this day—they discussed a range of issues, from the significance of the term ‘bookworm’ to the question of whether libraries ought to have a separate reference-room for ladies. They then turned their attention to another crucial issue: handwriting.” Good morning, Internet…

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