NEW RESOURCES

Phys.org: Penn interactive map shows community traits built from more than 37 billion tweets. “It’s no secret that communities across the United States differ greatly. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s World Well-Being Project sought a simple way to capture, explore and share such differences on a large scale. Their end goal: to provide individuals with valuable insights about where they live and offer comparisons to other communities. The result is the Well-Being Map, an interactive, freely available tool based on the statistical language analysis of more than 37 billion publicly shared, geo-tagged tweets and on regional demographic data.”

From The New Stack, with a hat tip to Angela G.: Big Data Simpsons. “Thanks to the work of Benjamin M. Schmidt, an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University, 25 years of dialogue from The Simpsons have been smashed into a giant data set, connected to a user-friendly search window.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Online database shows Pittsburgh’s city-owned properties for sale. “The City of Pittsburgh has begun using an online database to list city-owned properties that are available for sale. Announced Wednesday, the website lets potential buyers see all available properties on a digital map or search by street name or parcel number, Mayor Bill Peduto’s office said.”

The Conversation: The Australian palaeodiet: which native animals should we eat?. “…I am studying the economic utility of several Australian animals. In other words, how much meat, fat and marrow different body parts provide. This, coupled with an analysis of the nutritional quality of the meat, will help us understand why they were selected or ignored. My “Native Bush Tucker” project focuses primarily on marsupial animals. When completed, it will be an online database to aid the study of what people ate in the past with the goal of including these meats on our modern menu.” This article contains images of dead and butchered animals which some might find disturbing.

USEFUL STUFF

Finer Tech: How To Archive Your Internet Likes With Day One. “A long time ago, I had an app called Favs that collected everything I liked/hearted/bookmarked/whatevered across a ton of services (it was sadly abandoned). We’re talking Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, newsreader services, Pocket—probably over 20 services. It was a one-stop journal to find that thing I know I liked somewhere, and it made me happy. I miss Favs, so I recently decided to try and recreate it using apps and services at my disposal.”

Digital Trends: Colorkuler Will Generate A Color Palette Based On Your Instagram Profile. “If there is one thing that stands out about the greatest photographers it is that they almost always have a clear and consistent style used in their imagery. This is part of what allows their work to be easily recognizable. Many photographers struggle with trying to define and nail down what their style really is, but a new tool called ColorKuler is looking to help people get it sorted out.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: China’s bloggers, filmmakers feel chill of internet crackdown. “On Friday, an industry association circulated new regulations that at least two “auditors” will, with immediate effect, be required to check all audiovisual content posted online – from films to ‘micro’ movies, documentaries, sports, educational material and animation – to ensure they adhere to ‘core socialist values’. Topics deemed inappropriate include drug addiction and homosexuality, said the government-affiliated China Netcasting Services Association, which represents more than 600 members.”

BBC: Amazon and eBay images broken by Photobucket’s ‘ransom demand’. “Thousands of images promoting goods sold on Amazon and other shopping sites have been removed after a photo-sharing service changed its terms. Ebay and Etsy have also been affected, in addition to many forums and blogs. The problem has been caused by Photobucket introducing a charge for allowing images hosted on its platform to be embedded into third-party sites.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

US DOJ: United States Files Civil Action To Forfeit Thousands Of Ancient Iraqi Artifacts Imported By Hobby Lobby. “Earlier today, the United States filed a civil complaint to forfeit thousands of cuneiform tablets and clay bullae. As alleged in the complaint, these ancient clay artifacts originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and were smuggled into the United States through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, contrary to federal law. Packages containing the artifacts were shipped to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (‘Hobby Lobby’), a nationwide arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and two of Hobby Lobby’s corporate affiliates. The shipping labels on these packages falsely described cuneiform tablets as tile ‘samples.'” I am so mad about this.

BetaNews: Plugins and social media links leave websites more open to compromise. “Adding extra features like plugins and social media links makes websites more likely to be compromised according to a new report. The study by website security company SiteLock finds that sites with between one and five plugins have 1.5 times more chance of being compromised than the average site.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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