NEW RESOURCES

Smithsonian: Smithsonian Folklife Festival Announces the Launch of Online Exhibition “50 Years | 50 Objects”. “The Smithsonian Folklife Festival has announced the launch of the online exhibition ’50 Years | 50 Objects: Storied Objects From the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.’ The exhibition showcases for the first time a selection of objects that range from musical instruments and pottery to ceremonial costumes and sculptures from the Festival’s 50-year history. Together, these objects tell the story of skilled artisans working to preserve their heritage and crafts.”

New-to-me: A database of Fox and CNN “lower thirds”. The lower third is that part of the screen with summary headlines, teasers, etc. You can keyword search, but note that the search matches partial words; for example, if you search for cow you’ll get Moscow, coward, etc. Don’t know how long this has been aggregating materials but it doesn’t look like that long.

Digital NC: Student newspaper from Johnson C Smith University is now online. “The University Student, Johnson C. Smith University’s student newspaper, is now available on DigitalNC with issues from 1926-1930. Johnson C Smith University, a historically black university in Charlotte, NC was founded in 1867 as the Biddle Memorial Institute.”

Google Blog: Experience the songlines of Uluṟu with Google Maps Street View and Story Spheres. “In the heart of Australia’s red center lies the UNESCO World Heritage site, Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. It is deeply sacred to the Aṉangu people, who have lived there for more than 30,000 years. It’s also home to a wide range of species—21 mammals, 73 reptiles, 178 birds—and Australia’s most iconic natural landmark, Uluṟu. Starting today, people across the world will be able to visit Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park on Street View, walk on the desert sand and enjoy the vibrant hues of the rock—from ochre to rust to wild plum and charcoal.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Lauren Weinstein: Announcing: “Questions I’m Asked About Google” Live Video Streams. “Every day, for many years now, my email inbox has been loaded down with questions that relate to Google, one way or another. Even with my collection of ‘canned’ responses for the most common questions, there’s significant effort involved in dealing with these queries effectively — and I don’t consider simply ignoring them to be an ethical option. So let’s see if we can leverage some Google 21st century tech in these regards.” He’s already put up the video from his first Q&A.

Haven’t mentioned IFTTT in a while. It’s added Songkick. “Songkick is the world’s largest concert database (12,000 listings are added every week!) and music ticketing platform. Their service is designed to help you quickly find the shows you’re interested in: you can run Applets based on searches, tracked artists, or venues.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Facebook’s Role in European Elections Under Scrutiny. “Lawrence Dodd lives in one of Britain’s most fiercely fought voting districts, and he has been peppered almost daily with ads from the country’s major political parties on Facebook. About a month ago, he tried to find out why.”

Washington Post: Shareholders of Google’s parent company squash plan to disclose its gender pay data. “For the second year in a row, shareholders of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, voted down a proposal asking the tech giant to publish a report on possible pay disparities between its male and female employees. The vote comes at a time when the company is grappling with a federal lawsuit tied to this very issue and as the tech industry faces heightened scrutiny over gender pay, a lack of diversity and dysfunctional work environments.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

BetaNews: Unsecured online database exposes details of millions of cars and their owners. “As well as data such as VIN and details of payment plans, the database also includes detailed information about owners, such as name, address, phone numbers and occupation. It has been left exposed online for over four months, but it’s not clear who the owner is — or how to address the security risk it poses.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MIT Technology Review: Alphabet’s New Air Traffic Control System Steers Drones Away From Peril. “Flying a drone is easy enough. Ensuring that thousands of them flying through the same airspace don’t crash into each other, though? That’s a bit harder. Fortunately for the future of drones, Alphabet’s X laboratory has been developing its own solution.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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